Word: serb
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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PARIS: The time for talking may soon be over. The Serb delegation arrived at the Kosovo peace talks Tuesday with a new set of amendments to the Western-authored peace plan, which were bluntly rejected by mediators. With the Kosovar Albanians now ready to sign, the focus is once again on forcing the hand of the Serbs. "The original premise of the talks was that the fundamentals of the agreement are nonnegotiable," says TIME Paris correspondent Bruce Crumley. "The Serbs won't be allowed to renegotiate it. And with NATO threatening to bomb him into compliance, the question may once...
...Apparently unfazed by the looming standoff in Paris, Serb troops pursued their offensive in Kosovo Tuesday, torching three villages in their pursuit of Kosovo Liberation Army rebels. The renewed fighting may have helped persuade the Kosovars to play ball with NATO. "Although the deal falls short of the KLA's goal of independence, it weakens Milosevic's hold on Kosovo," says Crumley. "They also realized that their signature was a precondition to any NATO bombing of Milosevic's forces." For the heavily outgunned KLA, signing an imperfect deal is still a cost-effective way of calling in an air strike...
Selling peace in the Balkans is a tough proposition. But in the complex talks between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and their Serb rulers that adjourned last week in France, peace found a new promoter: Veton Surroi, a 37-year-old ethnic Albanian. The negotiations ended on a difficult note. Surroi and the other Albanian delegates agreed to a peace plan that would allow them limited self-rule for three years. As part of their agreement they made an unusual request--that they be allowed two weeks to return to Kosovo to sell the idea to their fellow Albanians...
...deal Surroi helped broker in France looks good on the surface for the Kosovars. After a year of fighting, they would be free of Yugoslav repression. The proposed self-rule would include control over government finances, locally maintained police forces, the removal of Serb troops and the presence of 28,000 NATO troops to ensure stability. Kosovars would feel as if they had their own nation, but they would remain a part of Yugoslavia...
...happens. Fighting last week threatened to undermine those rebels who back the deal. And the delay has given Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic a chance to deploy 4,500 additional soldiers, about 60 tanks and other heavy armor around Kosovo. In Washington there was worry that the troops looked like a cocked fist. As if peace needed another bad omen, the talks are set to restart on March 15--the infamous ides of March. Despite that, hope remains that the next two weeks will give Surroi and his fellow delegates the chance they need to praise peace in Kosovo...