Venom between negotiators as deadline nears

It's getting personal. With only a day-and-a-half left before tomorrow's noon deadline for a peace agreement between Serbs and ethnic Albanians, Mr Boris Maiorsky, the Russian negotiator, and Mr Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Macedonia, yesterday lost their diplomatic sang-froid at a press conference here, contradicting one another and insulting journalists.

To be charitable, Mr Maiorsky - who with his bristling salt and pepper hair resembles a hedgehog - had stayed up until 3.00 a.m. But there was more than fatigue behind the venom he showed towards his fellow negotiator. A statement in Moscow earlier in the day by President Yeltsin set the tone for US-Russian animosity. "We will not let Kosovo be touched," Mr Yeltsin said, even as another 51 US military aircraft made their way towards Europe. In other gestures calculated to set the Serbs' knees shaking, the US and British embassies in Belgrade announced that they are evacuating all but essential personnel.

The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeline Albright, again threatened the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, and his military toys. "He should understand that if air strikes occur, he will be hit hard and he will be deprived of things he values," Ms Albright said in Washington last night.

Since the peace talks started here on February 6th, the press briefings have resembled that Woody Allen film where the characters say one thing but their true thoughts are expressed in subtitles. Thus, when the owl-like Mr Hill said yesterday "We believe the negotiating teams here are empowered to reach agreement," you had to read the subtitle: "Mr Milosevic will decide." No one was supposed to leave Rambouillet until agreement was reached. Mr Hill broke that rule on Tuesday night, when the US Secretary of State dispatched him to Belgrade to see Mr Milosevic.

Asked whether he is going back to Belgrade again, Mr Hill snapped, "I don't know. It depends on my instructions."

The leader of the Albanian delegation, a young Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader, Mr Hashim Thaci, followed Mr Hill's example yesterday by slipping off to Slovenia to consult Mr Adem Demaci, the KLA's political representative.

Travel outside the country, Mr Hill said, "is up to the conference hosts. If travel is helpful to the process, no one wants to stand in the way". This prompted Mr Maiorsky's first broadside: "Travel from the site of the negotiations is treated as an exception," he said. "Delegates and negotiators are in principle supposed to stay here."

Then Mr Hill told another whopper, this time regarding the military annex to the accords.

"There has been very full discussion of the military aspects of this," Mr Hill said. Mr Maiorsky's hair bristled a little more stiffly.

"There was no official discussion," he said angrily. In an allusion to US heavy-handedness in imposing the NATO force, he added, almost singing, "Che sara, sara . . . you know this song, it was sung by Doris Day. If there were discussions on military aspects, I can assure you that we were not taking part."

Although the negotiators twice called the draft now being considered "the final version", Mr Hill said there was still "a lot of discussion" about the latest version of the constitution which would establish a second chamber of the Kosovo parliament, reserved entirely for the Serb minority, with a right of veto.

The press conference turned to pure farce when Mr Hill was asked about statements by KLA members that they would never disarm their guerrilla movement, one of the main conditions of an agreement. "What's the KLA?" the US ambassador demanded accusingly.

But Mr Maiorsky won the prize for cruelty to the press. "A journalist sitting in this room has written articles suggesting that the role of the Russians is to convince Yugoslavia to accept a NATO presence," he said, singling out a New York Times correspondent.

"Let me assure you that nothing of the kind is taking place. These are blatant lies."

Back in Belgrade, Mr Milosevic may also have found events in Rambouillet a little too personal.

Two members of the European Parliament, Mr Olivier Dupuis and Mr Gianfranco Dell-Alba, flew in from Brussels to demand that the Yugoslav President be indicted for war crimes in Kosovo. They fear negotiators may grant him immunity in exchange for an agreement.