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BELGRADE: Will President Slobodan Milosevic remember that it was Richard Holbrooke who authored the 1995 NATO bombing raids that forced the Serbs to negotiate a peace accord in Bosnia? NATO certainly hopes so. The Serb leader has largely ignored the Western ultimatum to end his offensive in Kosovo, and Holbrooke flies in to Belgrade today to warn of the consequences. "Right now Milosevic, and just about everyone else, believes that NATO lacks the political will to carry out air strikes," says TIME Central Europe bureau chief Massimo Calabresi...
...withdraw his troops and negotiate to restore Kosovo's autonomy within the Yugoslavian federation. But even in the unlikely event that he complies, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority would keep on fighting for independence from Belgrade. So air strikes are simply a short-term strategy to stop the Serb campaign against civilians. "There's no hope of any progress unless Milosevic makes some concessions, and so far he has given away nothing at all," says Calabresi. "He is pushing the situation toward violent confrontation." Perhaps the sight of Holbrooke will jog his memory...
...Milosevic's hard line has radicalized the Kosovar population, eroding support for moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova and -- to the consternation of the West -- boosting the ranks of the armed guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army. "The more Serb forces attack civilians, the weaker Rugova's position becomes," says Calabresi. Rugova today refused Milosevic's offer of talks, demanding Serb withdrawal as a precondition. But even that, says Calabresi, may not be enough: "Troop withdrawal wouldn't mean much unless Milosevic was prepared to make significant concessions on the political status of Kosovo" -- a notion that sticks in the craw...
BELGRADE: Slobodan Milosevic didn't survive this long through brute force alone: After yesterday's NATO fly-by to encourage the Serb leader to end his aggression in Kosovo, Milosevic today emerged from a meeting with Boris Yeltsin talking compromise. Although he gave no specific response to NATO demands, he offered to hold peace talks with ethnic Albanian leaders from Kosovo. "Milosevic is an expert in exploiting disagreements within the Western camp and their general reluctance to intervene," says TIME reporter Dejan Anastasijevic. "He will back off, but only slightly -- enough to leave the international community wondering what...
...read with interest your article on the crisis in the Serb region of Kosovo [WORLD, May 11]. The desire of Kosovar Albanians to seek independence is only the latest chapter in the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia. Belgrade strongman Slobodan Milosevic has watched his country disintegrate: Croatia, Bosnia and now, apparently, Kosovo want to go it alone...