Nato to reassess its strategy on Kosovo By Alexander Nicoll Defence Correspondent
Nato's approach to the Kosovo crisis, under growing criticism for its failure to produce results, will be reassessed over the next few weeks ahead of a series of summits to determine strategy.
Nato leaders face increasing pressure as public concern rises over incidents such as the death of scores of ethnic Albanian refugees on Friday following the bombing of Serb positions in the village of Korisa. They also know shelter will be needed for more than 700,000 Kosovar refugees in camps in Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro before winter.
Officials acknowledge they have not yet seen the results they had hoped for from military and diplomatic offensives against Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president. They concede any change in tack is likely to confront the alliance with what one diplomat calls "ugly choices", such as the option - unacceptable to many Nato members - of a ground offensive.
According to one senior diplomat there will be a "kind of reckoning" ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in Cologne on June 3 and 4 and a summit of the Group of Seven industrialised countries plus Russia on June 18-20. Foreign ministers are to have a series of meetings beginning today with an EU gathering in Brussels.
Robin Cook, UK foreign secretary, is due to go to Washington this week to show solidarity with Madeleine Albright, US secretary of state, on the Kosovo crisis.
They are likely to echo considerable confidence within the alliance that air strikes against Yugoslav strategic targets and ground forces will sap the military strength and power base of Mr Milosevic sufficiently to break his will.
Efforts are being made to define the necessary size and composition of any intervention force, and - given that an outright offensive is ruled out - the circumstances in which it would enter Kosovo. Nato, which insists it must be at the core of the force, originally planned for 28,000 troops to enter after a peace settlement.
The destruction of villages in Mr Milosevic's ethnic cleansing campaign, and the probable extensive laying of landmines by Serb forces, means the force will have to be considerably larger - perhaps even double the planned numbers - and contain more specialists such as mine-clearers.
Nato believes that, with the 16,000 troops already assembled in Macedonia and others nearby, it could enter Kosovo as soon as Serb forces retreat from the province.
Mr Cook yesterday told BBC Radio's The World This Weekend: "We are now looking at how many ground troops we might require in the very different circumstances of the past two months. We agreed that Javier Solana [Nato secretary-general] should update those plans and that is what he is now doing."
He added that troops would not wait "until President Milosevic gives us the say-so".