YUGOSLAVIA AGREES TO KOSOVO WITHDRAWAL
NATO reached agreement with Yugoslavia on the blueprint for the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo, taking a big step toward ending its 11-week-old bombing campaign and embarking on a difficult peacekeeping mission, report the Wall Street Journal (p.A3) and the Wall Street Journal Europe (p.2). NATO is eager to verify in daylight that Yugoslav military and police are complying with the timetable spelled out in the six-page document, possibly as early as today, officials said.
Once that happens, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana will suspend air strikes and open the way for the 50,000-strong [KFOR peacekeeping] force to move into the war-torn province. Lieutenant-General Michael Jackson, KFOR's commander, said the force intends to "establish a robust military presence" in Kosovo and ease the return of 1.5 million ethnic Albanians forced out of their homes by the conflict.
The UN Security Council is expected to meet and approve a resolution approving KFOR's deployment as soon as NATO halts the bombing campaign. Western officials were reassured that China would not veto or delay its passage, notes the story.
Yugoslavia must repay about $1.5 billion to the World Bank before the lender will consider new loans to help the country rebuild after the hostilities cease, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said yesterday, Bloomberg reports.
"Somehow, some way, we're going to have to find a solution or answer to that question," Wolfensohn said during a speech to the Bretton Woods Committee, a non-profit group. In the meantime, the World Bank and leading industrial nations will focus on providing financial assistance to the economies surrounding Yugoslavia and Kosovo, including Macedonia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Albania, the story says.
Wolfensohn said he will discuss aid to the region during a meeting this weekend in Frankfurt with finance ministers from the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, France and Italy as well as representatives from the EU and the IMF. "I only have the broadest ideas, we need to come up with a plan," Wolfensohn is quoted as saying. "There's very little doubt that we'll try to have the private sector come in." Rebuilding the six economies surrounding war-torn Kosovo will require more than $1.3 billion in direct humanitarian aid and budget support as long as the conflict ends soon, about 60 percent more than earlier estimated, the IMF projected last week, the story adds. El Mundo (p.6) also reports
The Bank and the EU will be coordinating the reconstruction of the Balkans, reports Europe Numéro 1 radio, quoting World Bank External Affairs Counsellor Patrice Dufour as saying that the challenge is not only to rebuild, but also to create the conditions for economic recovery.
Meanwhile, Germany is expected to win broad international backing today for a southeast European "stability pact" that would help pave the way for post-Kosovo war reconstruction and closer integration of countries in the region into European and trans-Atlantic institutions, reports the Financial Times (p.2). The initiative would represent a significant gesture of support for the region, bringing together EU countries, Russia and the US, as well as countries affected by the war.
However, says the story, the pact is likely to fall well short of its original billing as a second Marshall Plan for Europe. Drafts of the plan circulating yesterday at a meeting in Cologne of the G8 foreign ministers emphasized the setting up of a regional political forum, with sub-groups on democratization and human rights, economic reconstruction, and development and security issues. Extra financial help, which could amount to $5.1 billion a year for the region, would almost certainly be decidedly subsequently, with the EU providing much of the total, says the story.
Germany is attaching a high priority to the pact, which it argues could form a foundation for long-term stability in the region. However, the US and the UK were pushing last night for a significant toughening of the wording in the pact on the possible participation of Yugoslavia. The two countries wanted, at a minimum, concrete moves on democratization to be written into the pact.
The EU is facing a momentous challenge, Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek writes in the Financial Times (p.4). The storms in southeastern Europe are destabilizing the entire continent. Nobody should use the Balkans for political muscle-flexing. The war on poverty must be put at the top of the region's priorities. This cannot be achieved by crumbs falling from a rich man's table. What is needed is an economic recovery and development plan along the lines of the Marshall Plan.