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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Lacelle who wrote (14579)	9/20/1999 6:28:00 AM
From: MNI	Respond to of 17770

the second verse: When will we meet again, baby? KLA deadline extended news.bbc.co.uk After an all-night negotiating session, Nato has agreed to give the Kosovo Liberation Army an additional 48 hours to meet a deadline for demilitarisation. The KLA had been required to demilitarise by midnight on Sunday but KLA leaders refused to sign an agreement transforming the ethnic Albanian force into a civilian Kosovo Corps. The new deadline is midnight on Tuesday, said K-For commander General Sir Mike Jackson. "I hope that Mr Thaci and the leadership of the KLA will see that the failure to accept the weapons regime is in danger of unsettling the KLA membership and perhaps Kosovo's future as a whole," Gen Jackson said. Mr Thaci said "the process of demilitarisation is still ongoing" as he left the talks in the Kosovan capital Pristina. Obstacles A diplomatic source said major obstacles stand in the way of an agreement and that the KLA is even objecting to the name of the new force. Under a phased 90-day disarmament process signed in June, KLA troops agreed to remove their uniforms, hand in the last of their weapons and, for the majority, return to civilian life. In a joint statement with UN mission chief Bernard Kouchner, Gen Jackson said the disarmament of the KLA was complete with more than 10,000 weapons turned in to peacekeepers. It is unclear, however, whether this constituted the total number held by the rebels. Many of the weapons reporters have seen at collection centres are in poor condition or are virtual antiques. Kosovo Corps The main stumbling block has been the structure and role of the new force - the Kosovo Corps. Nato insists that the 5,000-strong corps should be a lightly-armed civil defence body restricted to humanitarian work and disaster relief. The KLA, however, wants it to be the nucleus for a new national army of an independent Kosovo, and is demanding the right for more members to be allowed to bear arms. There are also differences over the leadership, name and insignia of the corps. The two sides have already postponed a signing ceremony for an agreement on the new force which was to have come into being on Monday.