Observer (London) - May 30, 1999 SECRET PLAN FOR INVASION FORCE
By Patrick Wintour, Political Editor
A secret meeting last week between the five senior Nato Defence Ministers discussed plans for a 150,000-strong ground invasion force for Kosovo, including 50,000 British servicemen.
US Defence Secretary William Cohen secretly flew to Bonn for the meeting - also attended by Britain's George Robertson and Ministers from France, Germany and Italy - before the start of a conference of the Western European Union.
The Ministry of Defence yesterday confirmed the meeting took place, but refused to discuss its purpose. Pentagon sources said Cohen had flown to Europe to discuss plans prepared by Wesley Clark, Nato's Supreme Commander, for a full-scale ground invasion. The US continued to insist that there was no consensus for a ground invasion and that the air campaign was working.
Meanwhile, the search for a long-term diplomatic solution suffered another blow yesterday when a Serbian court sentenced two Australian aid workers to four to 12 years' imprisonment after finding them guilty of spying.
The trial of Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace, who work for the charity Care, had been closed to international observers. A Yugoslav colleague of the Australians, Branko Jelen, was also jailed.
News of the Bremen meeting came as Britain and the US played down suggestions of a sudden and unexpected diplomatic breakthrough after the Yugoslav government claimed yesterday it had accepted the general principles for a settlement issued two weeks ago by the Group of Seven industrial countries and Russia.
In response to the Serb offer, France and Germany called for a G8 meeting to consider a response, a move welcomed by Javier Solana, the Nato secretary-general.
The optimism came after Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin left Belgrade following nine hours of talks on Friday saying he was very pleased. There were also reports that the peace faction within the Belgrade regime thought Milosevic was psychologically prepared to recognise the need for an international peacekeeping force with Nato at its core.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook reacted cautiously, saying: 'This shift by Milosevic shows that the pressure is now beginning to tell on him. However, he has got to go beyond accepting principles to talking about real substance if he wants to prove he is serious.
'Before we can know whether this is real progress, we must first find out whether Milosevic will accept a credible international military force with a Nato core to escort the refugees home.'
Nato also announced that it could not provide air cover for the first humanitarian food drops to be flown over Kosovo by a US aid agency next week. The drops are intended to feed hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced inside Kosovo. Until recently the Pentagon has opposed the drops, claiming food would be seized by Serb soldiers..