Word: kosovo
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Rugova is also uncompromising. "We have a right to be a new independent state," he says to TIME before the meeting. He tells Holbrooke that a NATO force, including U.S. soldiers, should deploy in Kosovo to establish an "international protectorate." Washington wants no part of such talk: it prefers that Kosovo remain within Yugoslavia as a fully autonomous republic but without the right to secede. Of more immediate concern is how much support Rugova commands among the increasingly bellicose and fragmented rebels. Holbrooke presses Rugova, who insists that he can speak for the K.L.A. in negotiations with Milosevic. Holbrooke...
Wednesday, 12:15 p.m., Kosovo. An armored van carrying Holbrooke stops along a one-lane dirt road just south of the hamlet of Istinic. Rusted farm implements obstruct traffic, one of many barricades K.L.A. insurgents have set up. U.S. security agents scan the surrounding forest, fearing that the halted convoy may become a target for stray gunfire. Holbrooke orders the vehicles to head back to the town of Decane, which Serb forces burned last month. Coming through the town earlier, the convoy passed deserted buildings, but in the town's center, two dozen people sat at an open-air cafe...
...Marlboro stands watch decked out in a black Ninja suit, cellular phone and holstered pistol. The unprepossessing leaders illustrate yet another conundrum facing Holbrooke: the K.L.A. has no effective political arm; fighters are already splitting into factions; and power is so diffuse that even if they succeed in liberating Kosovo, the lawless conditions that prevail today may continue. As a prominent Kosovar tells TIME, "It could be like Afghanistan...
...assault rifle propped between his legs. Sipping Turkish coffee, Shehu reports that Serb attacks have reduced the population from 12,000 to 2,000, and the village remains under Serb mortar fire. He brushes aside Holbrooke's plea for a cease-fire and says the guerrillas will fight until Kosovo wins independence, or until death. "It reminds me of Bosnia on the eve of war," Holbrooke says as he leaves. "Both sides are ready to fight...
Thursday, 8:30 p.m., Belgrade. Holbrooke has returned to meet with Milosevic, but yesterday's chaotic events have shaken him. At this point, Kosovo remains a low-intensity struggle, but Holbrooke fears it will explode into real conflict. Provocations are threatening at the roadblocks lining the main highway running west from Pristina, and the mission has contracted to clearing two checkpoints, one belonging to the K.L.A., the other to the Serbs. Holbrooke pleads with Milosevic to hold off from attacking the Kosovar roadblocks, but the Serb is noncommittal. "We managed to stop a war in Bosnia," Holbrooke reminds...