CONFLICT-YUGOSLAVIA: Serbian Parliament Rejects NATO Ultimatum

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Mar 23 1999 (IPS) - The Serbian parliament unanimously rejected Tuesday Western demands for the deployment of NATO military forces in the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo, but left the door open for further negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Serbian government decreed Tuesday a “state of imminent danger,” while the military is actively preparing for confrontation with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), which is threatening with devastating air attacks.

With a vote of 204-0 with one abstention (out of 250 seats) the Serbian Parliament ambiguously left the door open for a yet-to- be defined foreign military presence in the country under an autonomy agreement for Kosovo.

The resolution said that Serbia could “examine the character and extent of an international presence in Kosovo” immediately after the signing of an autonomy accord “acceptable to all national communities in Kosovo”, the local Serb minority included.

The day-long parliamentary debate was dedicated to the failed Rambouillet and Paris talks on Kosovo, described by Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, as “an agreement written by (ethnic) Albanian separatists”.

Any internationally imposed peace plan with foreign troops in Kosovo, “and inalienable part of Serbia, would mean the loss of the Serbian state” he said.

In an interview with a French newspaper, Milutinovic said Monday that the Rambuoillet plan was “imposed” and that Serbian reservations were never discussed.

“How can we sign a document that had been imposed and whose provisions were never discussed.” he said to Parisian La Croix.

Almost at the same time as the Parliament held its vote, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke left Belgrade empty-handed, after two days of talks aimed at forcing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept the plan or face deadly air attacks.

Addressing journalists at Belgrade’s Hyatt Hotel, Holbrooke said that two days of talks did not bring any commitments from the Yugoslav President regarding what the US considers crucial points.

“We emphasised two things: We sought evidence that there would be a ceasefire of the military operation going on in Kosovo and secondly a readiness to enter and to prompt actions that would lead rapidly to a NATO-led force in Kosovo in accordance with the Rambouillet accords.”

“A force, I would stress that was neither pro-or anti- any ethnic group but in favour of peace in the region,” he said.

Holbrooke did not rule out further diplomatic efforts

“Communications are always open even in times of conflict. (Negotiator and US) Ambassador (Christopher) Hill will return to Skopje (Macedonia), and the rest of us go to Brussels and Washington. Belgrade has his phone number” Holbrooke said.

In the Western alliance, only the US and Britain have expressed a their will to launch air attacks against Yugoslavia, while Italy, France and Russia, also members of the Contact Group for Yugoslavia, have intensified private efforts to avoid the use of force.

The Russian parliament issued Tuesday an almost unanimous resolution condemning the NATO threats and calling for solidarity with Yugoslavia, while Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov is visiting Washington.

US president Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday declared their firm intention to bomb Yugoslavia on “humanitarian” grounds, but both also warned their constituencies that the fighting would produce casualties.

In the meantime, reports reaching Belgrade say that the call up of military reservists is going on a scale that could be compared only to general mobilisation in 1941, ahead of the Nazi Germany occupation of Serbia.

Natasa Kandic, head of Belgrade Humanitarian Law Fund, told journalists that calls to her office show that mobilisation includes even Serbian refugees from Croatia and Bosnia, who found shelter in Serbia since 1991 and 1992.

“The mobilisation is wider than any other because things can happen here, in Serbia” she said. According to Kandic, even people aged 50 have been mobilised.

She said that in October, the last time NATO threatened air strikes against Yugoslav military targets over the army’s offensive against separatism in Kosovo, callers were concerned about possible bombing, while this time “(ground) war with NATO forces” was the main concern.

But ground war has been for now ruled out by NATO, whose commanders are wary about a potentially heavy military and political price.

An air attack would be “useless,” warned Italian Colonel Marco Bertolini, Chief of Staff at the NATO force deployed in Macedonia, “a little bit because of conditions on the ground but also because after Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, we have learned from history.”

“The myth of air power as a total weapon is just that, a myth,” Bertolini said. Air strikes must be followed by ground troops, which in turn “are useful to occupy a territory, not to achieve peace,” he added.

To add to the heated atmosphere in the country, Milosevic Tuesday replaced the head of the security department at the Army General staff, general Aleksandar Dimitrijevic.

As the head of the Supreme defence council, Milosevic is constitutionally also the supreme commander of the Yugoslav Army (VJ). Dimitrijevic was replaced by general Geza Farkas.

The move was viewed by most of the analysts in Belgrade as a show of restlessness by Milosevic at the time of deep crisis, although it also may serve as a signal that he is in full command of the military.

The loyalty of the military – where there are commanders who seem to believe that Serbia has no strenght to fight a war against NATO, is a big quiz to Milosevic, analysts said.