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

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (8970)	5/18/1999 10:09:00 AM
From: Enigma	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17770

Cinton can't go it alone on a ground war - anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the US know this - he will have difficulty even getting approval for a peacekeeping force. d

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (8970)	5/18/1999 10:21:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Germany joins US in veto of ground force By Christopher Lockwood Press conference by Jamie Shea and Maj Gen Walter Jertz [18 May '99] - Nato Briefing by George Robertson and Gen Sir Charles Guthrie [18 May '99] - Ministry of Defence Commons debate on Kosovo [18 May '99] - Foreign & Commonwealth Office Number 10 Downing Street Kosovo - United States Information Agency Kosovo crisis - Janes Defence Crisis in Kosovo - Centre for Strategic and International Studies Serbian Ministry of Information Further doubt cast on US claims of genocide in Kosovo [18 May '99] - World Socialist Web Site What kind of war is this? [18 May '99] - Christian Science Monitor PM hears tale of 72-year-old beaten by Serbs Perils of novice war leader cheered on by tabloid readers Serb mothers lead anti-war protests over sons' coffins Feedback: Fool Britannia CHANCELLOR Gerhard Schröder yesterday rejected tough proposals from Tony Blair to deploy ground troops in Kosovo in the absence of agreement from Slobodan Milsoevic to allow them in. After meeting the Italian Prime Minister, Massimo D'Alema, who has repeatedly ruled out the use of ground troops, Mr Schröder said it would be "unthinkable" to launch a ground war. The rejection parallels one given to Mr Blair by President Clinton in Washington last month. Mr Blair tried for hours to persuade the President to endorse the possible use of ground troops if bombing fails to force Milosevic to back down. But he could not. In a new twist yesterday though, Mr Clinton said no solution should be ruled out. He said: "I don't think that we or our allies should take any options off the table and that has been my position from the beginning, that we ought to stay with the strategy that we have and work it through to the end." Few analysts think that there is any chance of him sending them, however. The opinion polls do not support it and Congress is deeply hostile. Britain apart, no European country is backing the idea of sending ground forces. After his talks with Mr D'Alema in the southern Italian city of Bari, Mr Schröder said: "Germany believes that sending in ground troops is unthinkable. This is our position and it won't change in the future," France and Canada also responded coolly to British hints that ground troops might be needed in the near future. The French Foreign Minister, Hubert Védrine, and his Canadian counterpart, Lloyd Axworthy, said after talks in Paris that the Nato partners had chosen a strategy of air strikes combined with diplomacy and that policy was still in force. In private, French officials have been expressing their mystification that Britain has allowed itself to be isolated by trying to push the ground troops option. Mr Axworthy said he was convinced that the current strategy was succeeding. He said: "Right now we think we are on the right track. If we can take advantage of that pressure [on Milosevic] to open up diplomatic overtures, I think we can find a resolution." After stalling for two weeks, Belgrade now seems ready to discuss the peace plan drawn up by the G8 countries which calls for an international peacekeeping force to be sent into Kosovo. The Russian negotiator, Viktor Chernomyrdin, is to meet Milosevic today, and at the same time senior officials from the G8 will meet to draw up a United Nations resolution outlining terms for a peace deal. The resolution, agreed in principle by the G8 countries on May 5, calls for Kosovo to be put under international administration and for Serb troops to be replaced there by an international force. In the past three days a series of meetings involving the Russians, the Americans and the European Union have taken place in several European capitals, all aimed at forging a common position that can be presented to Milosevic. The visit to Belgrade by Mr Chernomyrdin would allow the Yugoslav authorities to "address the initiative in a more concrete manner", a Yugoslav spokesman said. But the end result is likely to be unpalatable to Britain and to America. Both insist that Nato troops must form the core of any peacekeeping force and want to refuse Milosevic the right to pick and choose which countries should be included. Milosevic has ruled out participation by the "aggressor" countries. For the Russians, too, it remains unacceptable that America and Britain should be allowed to occupy Kosovo. The danger for Britain and America is that the other Nato countries are much more willing to compromise than they are. Neither Italy nor Germany, which have been working on a peace plan of their own, feel it necessary to be dogmatic about Nato's role in the force. A second deep division lies ahead, over the question of suspending Nato's air strikes once a UN resolution has been passed. Greece, Italy and Germany have all made clear that they would favour a bombing pause at that point. Britain and America would both look for a categorical acceptance of its terms by Milosevic, backed by troop movements on the ground. Ben Fenton in Washington writes: Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, arrives in Washington tomorrow to find President Clinton's administration still opposed politically, militarily and diplomatically to the use of ground troops in Kosovo. He will be concentrating on leaders of Congress and opinion-formers such as the editorial board of the Washington Post, because he knows that the White House fears it has too much to lose by bending to the leadership of a hawkish Britain, according to diplomatic sources here. Mr Cook's last visit was for the Nato 50th anniversary summit at the end of last month, shortly after he, Tony Blair and George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, had been making bellicose noises about sending in troops. telegraph.co.uk