Austria still hopeful of Kosovo peace deal

Date: 03/12/1998

By Simon Taylor

AUSTRIAN officials are still hopeful of a breakthrough in peace talks over Kosovo before Christmas, despite Serbia's decision to table a rival proposal to the US-EU sponsored package.

They are warning that unless the Serbs and Kosovan Albanians narrow their differences by the end of the winter, war could break out again in the region, testing the West's resolve to use threats of military action to bring both sides to the negotiating table.

Officials at the foreign ministry in Vienna say they are still optimistic that shuttle diplomacy by EU special envoy to Kosovo Wolfgang Petritsch and US representative Christopher Hill could produce some common ground between the two sides.

The international community is working hard to try to find a peaceful solution to the conflict between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the Serbian province of Kosovo, which has led to the deaths of at least 1,000 people and resulted in 250,000 people being driven from their homes.

Petritsch and Hill are currently touting a sixth draft of an interim peace plan in meetings with officials in the Serbian capital of Belgrade and the regional Kosovan capital of Pristina.

An Austrian official said that the fifth draft had been "more or less acceptable" and expressed disappointment that the rival proposal tabled by Serbian President Milan Milutinovic contained many of the elements of an earlier version.

The Serbian capital's new plan has, not surprisingly, been rejected by radical Albanians. "Belgrade is trying to force something down our throats that not even a dog with a greased throat would touch," claimed Adem Demaci of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

The current plan from the international community offers a temporary solution to the central question of the status of the Kosovans in the Serbian province.

The ethnic Albanians have insisted that the option of full autonomy for Kosovo should remain open, although Serbia would never agree to this.

In order to encourage concessions from Belgrade, the Kosovans have made a number of gestures towards Serbian sensibilities, including giving an indication that they could accept a collective presidency in Pristina similar to the multi-ethnic post in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But both sides are still divided about what powers a Kosovan parliament would have. The ethnic Albanians are pushing for normal state powers over legislation and foreign policy, but Belgrade is not prepared to cede political rights which would smack of an independent republic.

Hopes of a meaningful peace deal remain dim as the Albanians have very little bargaining strength compared to the Serbs and direct negotiations between the two sides are still some way off.

The Kosovo Albanians, who are represented by a range of parties from the moderates of President Rugova's LDK to the Kosovo Liberation Army's Demaci, have only the threat of NATO action if hostilities resume to force the Serbs to negotiate a settlement.