Milosevic scuppered Kosovo peace deal: diplomat

A senior European diplomat today accused Slobodan Milosevic of backing out of an agreement that could have averted war in Kosovo.

The former Yugoslav president’s war crimes trial resumed in The Hague after a two-week break to allow Milosevic to recover from flu and a high fever.

Wolfgang Petritsch, part of the team that mediated for months between Yugoslavia and ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo, said the Serb delegation to peace talks in February 1999 accepted a compromise providing for broad autonomy short of full independence for the Kosovo Albanians.

On the last day of the talks at the French chateau of Rambouille, the Serbian delegation chief Ratko Markovic, submitted a letter which implied agreement to the stationing of international troops in Kosovo to police the accord - a key issue that until then had deadlocked the negotiations, Petritsch said.

But at a subsequent meeting in Paris three weeks later, the Serb delegation reversed itself, said Petritsch, who represented the European Union in the six member mediation group.

‘‘There was a total change of attitude,’’ said the Austrian diplomat. He said the Serbs not only rejected the military terms, but backtracked on its agreement to the political accord reached in Rambouille.

‘‘It was clear the Yugoslav side was instructed not to achieve a positive result,’’ he said.

Asked who gave those instructions, Petritsch said he had no definite knowledge, but that Milosevic was ‘‘calling the shots’’ for the delegation.

‘‘It was Milosevic who did not like it ... who decided not to continue the path of negotiation,’’ he said.

On March 22 two days before Nato warplanes began bombing Serb forces to force them to leave Kosovo - Petritsch said he met Milosevic to deliver a final warning that the alternative to a peaceful settlement of the Kosovo conflict was military intervention.

‘‘My impression was that he had already made up his mind and was not really listening,’’ he said. '‘For me, it was quite depressing. There was no real interest in finding a solution.’’

Cross-examining the witness, Milosevic called the draft agreement at Rambouille an ‘‘ultimatum’’ that called for the occupation of Yugoslav territory by Nato forces.

Milosevic is on trial for war crimes, including genocide, in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. The first part of the trial was focusing on the Serb crackdown against Albanian rebels in Kosovo.