Word: serb
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Serbs are calling the bluff. NATO generals raced to Belgrade Monday to warn President Slobodan Milosevic that air strikes remain an option after Friday's massacre of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. But Sunday's renewed Serb attack on the village where 45 civilians were butchered on Friday shows Milosevic doesn't believe the West has the will...
...withdrawn, it's not clear that the U.S. and its allies would attack: Many Western observers believe that only ground troops could keep the peace in Kosovo -- and that's a non-starter, since the Western alliance has no appetite for wading into an intractable civil war between the Serb authorities and the independence-minded Kosovar Albanians. And with no firm Western action, Holbrooke's cease-fire will likely melt away with the winter snows. Memo to President Clinton: You may want to drop that "Peace in the Balkans" item from your State of the Union list of foreign policy...
That didn't take long. Thursday's prisoner exchange in Kosovo may have been hailed as an important Serb recognition of the KLA rebels as a legitimate fighting faction, but on Friday, the two sides did what warring factions do. As many as 15 KLA fighters were reported killed in fierce clashes in southern Kosovo. And for the first time, two European monitors were wounded in the fighting...
...skirmishes over a road that had been closed by the rebels highlight the gulf that remains between the two sides. Yugoslavia's Serb government held a cabinet meeting in the territory Friday to underline its determination to resist KLA demands for independence. U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke brokered a cease-fire last fall to avoid NATO air strikes against the Serbs, but that was widely interpreted as the two sides taking a winter recess. "One explanation for the renewed fighting might be that the weather has warmed up a little," says TIME reporter Dejan Anastasijevic. And when spring sets in, young...
...deal painstakingly negotiated by European monitors, the KLA released eight captive Serb soldiers after the Serbs agreed to hand over nine KLA prisoners. The deal surprised many observers, who expected the Serbs to maintain a hard line. "This is a major step forward for the KLA and may signal further diplomatic progress in the region," says Anastasijevic. But with the KLA committed to fight for full independence and the Serbs dead set against letting them go, even today's breakthrough won't stop further violence...