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To: Alex who wrote (30095)	3/16/1999 4:47:00 AM
From: Bobby Yellin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116762

newsunlimited.co.uk newsunlimited.co.uk newsunlimited.co.uk newsunlimited.co.uk

To: Alex who wrote (30095)	3/16/1999 8:22:00 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116762

Mumbai--Mar 16--Gold demand in India, the world's largest consumer, will rise between 5% and 10% in 1999, but smuggling is also making a comeback, a World Gold Council official said today. "Demand is likely to be up between 5% and 10% in 1999 over the previous year," said Derrick Machado, financial institutions manager at the Geneva- based World Gold Council, an association of mining companies. By Agence France-Presse, Story .14912 crbindex.com

To: Alex who wrote (30095)	3/16/1999 6:21:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116762

Serbs Nix Kosovo Peace Plan Tuesday, 16 March 1999 P A R I S (AP) BRUSHING ASIDE Western pressure and NATO threats, Serbs said Tuesday they won't accept the Kosovo peace plan that rival ethnic Albanians have agreed to sign. Setting up new obstacles to the proposed deal during the second day of peace talks near the Arc de Triomphe, Serbs were demanding amendments to a U.S.-sponsored plan - significant changes that foreign mediators called unacceptable. Serbian President Milan Milutinovic said his side refuses the key part of the plan - having NATO troops implement it - and would sign only the political provision "under the precondition" that the mediators "accept all of our complaints." Milutinovic's comments at the Paris peace talks brought closer the prospect of NATO airstrikes against Serbia. Western nations sponsoring the talks have said the military and political components of the peace plan are inseparable. Accusing Serb negotiators of backtracking, U.S. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said "time and patience clearly are running out" and that the Serbs must decide "whether they want a peace agreement rather than a catastrophe." In Kosovo, meanwhile, three villages were reported ablaze as Serb-led government forces pushed ethnic Albanian rebels deeper into a snowy mountain range. "While we are negotiating in good faith, the Serbs are engaged in police and military activity in Kosovo," said Veton Surroi, a member of the ethnic Albanian delegation at the talks. The ethnic Albanian leadership agreed to sign onto the peace plan Monday, making good on a pledge they gave mediators Feb. 23 when the first round of the talks recessed at Rambouillet, France. But in a sign that all ethnic Albanian factions are not united, hard-line rebels in the northern part of Kosovo accused their negotiators in Paris of selling out on the goal of independence. "We know it is very easy for them to accept a compromise ... because it wasn't their friends who were killed and whose dying wish was for our people to fight until Kosovo is free," said the Podujevo sector commander of the KLA. The commander, who goes by the nom de guerre "Remi" and has been an outspoken critic of the plan, made his statement in Tuesday's edition of the Albanian-language newspaper Koha Ditore. Diplomats inside the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Serbs had proposed a list of amendments that would radically limit Kosovo Albanian autonomy. A Western diplomat said the proposals would significantly change the deal. The diplomats said if there was no progress soon with the Serbs, the negotiations may end by Friday. The United States and its Western allies will then have to decide about possible military intervention to end the Kosovo bloodshed. The agreement would give the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo wide political autonomy, while keeping the province within Serbia's borders. The plan provides for 28,000 NATO troops, including up to 4,000 Americans, to enforce it - a provision Serb-led Yugoslavia will not accept. "We reject foreign troops," Milutinovic said. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who is co-chairing the talks along with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, praised the Albanian side for showing "real courage" in promising to sign onto the peace plan. "We need the Serb side to show the same courage," Cook said. Despite international pressure, the Serbs continued to dismiss the Albanian plan to sign. "Unilateral signing does not mean anything," Milutinovic said. Asked whether NATO bombing of Serbia was now more likely, he responded: "This is not out of the question, but we are not afraid of that." Fighting in Kosovo, a province in Yugoslavia's republic of Serbia, has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced 300,000 over the past year. The fighting has picked up since the first round of talks ended, with the two sides apparently vying for position ahead of a political settlement. U.N. refugee officials said at least 9,000 people have been driven out of their homes since Monday alone. The scale of fighting is at its highest level since an October cease-fire, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said. In a move that could bring further trouble to the talks, Yugoslavia asked Interpol to assist in the arrest of the head of the ethnic Albanian delegation, Hashim Thaci. The 29-year-old Thaci is wanted for murder in connection with the Kosovo rebellion, the state-run Tanjug news agency said.