A major co-ordinated diplomatic initiative on Kosovo, involving the EU, NATO and the Contact Group for former Yugoslavia, will be discussed today when senior officials from the Contact Group nations meet in London, the German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, said yesterday.
With concerns mounting that military action against the Serb forces without a clear political objective will be counter-productive, Germany, currently occupying the EU Presidency, will be pressing for agreement on a wide-ranging package of proposals which they hope will tempt the Serbs and the divided Albanian majority in Kosovo to the talks table.
Although he would not elaborate on the details of the proposals, the German spokesman, Mr UweKarsten Heye, said that they would be looking for a package of "economic, social and societal" measures that would interest both sets of parties. He admitted that the problems faced by the international community were exacerbated by the fact that they have no reliable political partners on the ground in Kosovo.
On the one hand, moderate Albanians have been driven by the war into the arms of supporters of independence rather than those who favour a limited form of autonomy backed by the international community. On the other, the Serbs appear reluctant to allow even autonomy.
Both parties, Mr Heye said, still appeared convinced that they could make progress only through armed action.
"It is an exercise in brinkmanship for us all," he said.
Reports on the visit by Gen Klaus Naumann and Gen Wesley Clark to Belgrade indicate that "Belgrade's take on reality is very selective," Mr Heye said.
That reality was complicated, he said, by the fact that the Albanian majority is deeply divided. "It is not clear that they can agree on a joint Albanian delegation or a common position for talks," Mr Heye said. Mr Fischer added that it was also important to make clear to the Kosovo Liberation Army "that continued armed actions are conducive only to a humanitarian disaster".
Mr Heye insisted that sanctions against Belgrade must stay. "Pressure on Milosevic [the Yugoslav President] must be sustained," he said. And the second 1,000 members of the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe monitoring mission would have to be deployed, he added.
