POLITICS: UN Approaches Last Hurdle to Kosovo Peace Pact

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 8 1999 (IPS) - The UN Security Council began discussions Tuesday on a resolution designed to send international peacekeepers to Kosovo but still had a few snags to clear before it can authorise the troops.

Most significantly, China – one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the 15-nation Council – has signalled that it would not accept any resolution for the Kosovo forces that would allow troops to use force if necessary.

In addition, a Chinese official who wished to remain anonymous, Beijing was upset with language in the draft resolution that called for “full cooperation by all concerned, including the international security presence, with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.”

China and Russia in recent days both raised objections to the idea that the Kosovo military force should help the UN war crimes tribunal – which has indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity – in its work.

Both nations wanted the United Nations to control the force but the language of the draft authorised UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan only to coordinate the troops’ activities with that of a UN-established “civil presence.”

China has been especially upset with the continued attacks on Yugoslavia since the May 7 bombing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Nevertheless, China was expected to accept the resolution this week.

Diplomats told IPS that the Council may approve the resolution, which “decides on the deployment in Kosovo, under United Nations auspices, of civil and security presences,” as early as Wednesday.

Any final changes in the draft text would be made in Bonn, where the Group of Eight bloc of industrialised nations and Russia was meeting, diplomats said.

British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock added that it was unlikely there would be any change that significantly altered the text. He asserted that any resolution for Kosovo troops would be under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter and would include the demand for cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal.

Beijing accepted the idea that, regardless of squabbles over language, the resolution must be passed quickly to end the nearly 11-week NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. “Time is of the essence,” the Chinese official said.

Yet the timing of any agreement remained in doubt.

The NATO member states wanted the Yugoslav military to agree quickly to NATO rules for its military operations within Kosovo in discussions held in Macedonia. NATO did not intend halting its air offensive until Yugoslav troops began withdrawing from Kosovo, which was unlikely before there was a military agreement.

Russia and China – as well as Belgrade – had continued to insist that NATO must cease the bombing before there could be any UN agreement.

“No resolution can be seriously discussed or adopted until the bombing is stopped,” Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

The timing problems were not insurmountable, diplomats believe, and could be resolved through a delicate process this week.

“Synchronisation is the word of the day,” said US State Department spokesman James Rubin. The bombing halt and Security Council discussion could happen “at roughly the same time.”

That certainly was underway here as discussions for Yugoslav troop withdrawal made progress in Kosovo and the draft resolution – negotiated during a lengthy meeting of the Group of Eight foreign ministers Monday – was brought to the Security Council.

The text enshrined most of the positions of the 19-nation NATO bloc, including the need for “an immediate and verifiable end to violence and repression in Kosovo” and “verifiable phased withdrawals from Kosovo of all military, police and paramilitary forces.”

For Belgrade, the saving grace of the resolution was that it placed the force “under UN auspices” rather than those of NATO; but in that regard, the text was vague on the issue of command and control of the force – let alone the specific role of NATO.

Annan noted Monday, however, that the “military aspect” would not operate independent of the civil presence headed by a UN envoy. “The military commander and the (UN-appointed) civilian head will have to coordinate their efforts very closely,” he said.

Diplomats believed that most of the roughly 50,000 troops sent to Kosovo would be provided by NATO countries operating under NATO commanders. Lavrov noted that Russia also expected to send peacekeepers but had not decided how those troops would coordinate their activities with other forces.

The draft text would authorise the force for an initial period of one year, which would be renewed automatically unless the Council were to decide otherwise.

The resolution allows the force to maintain security in Kosovo and disarm all Kosovar armed groups, and also authorises Annan to set up a civil presence to provide for “substantial autonomy and self-government in Kosovo.”