Kosovo Albanians will sign agreement: Dole

LONDON, MARCH 6: Former United States Senator Bob Dole, who met Kosovo Albanian representatives in Macedonia yesterday, said today he was...

LONDON, MARCH 6: Former United States Senator Bob Dole, who met Kosovo Albanian representatives in Macedonia yesterday, said today he was confident they would sign the contact group peace plan tomorrow.“They (Kosovo Albanians) indicated many times they will keep their word and I think they will keep their word and they will sign tomorrow. It takes courage but in my view it will be done,” Dole told reporters.

“It’s not a perfect agreement, probably not the one they (Kosovo Albanians) would draft, but I think it’s the best possible agreement,” he said. Dole had earlier briefed US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in London on her way home from Asia about the intentions of ethnic Albanians towards the peace plan. Also at the meeting was General Wesley Clark, the United States army general who commands NATO forces in Europe, Kosovo mediator Christopher Hill and Jim O’Brien, a State Department official helping with the negotiations.

“We made good progress. (The ethnic Albanians) promised to signthe document tomorrow and Ambassador Hill will be meeting with them some time around midday tomorrow,” Dole said. Meanwhile, the prosecutor for the UN tribunal on the former Yugoslavia has said that any agreement on Kosovo should authorise NATO-led forces to hunt down people indicted by it for human rights violations and other crimes.

The prosecutor, Louise Arour, told a news conference at the United Nations yesterday that she wanted an “explicit and robust” language in the military annex to the agreement which would allow NATO forces to apprehend such people.

The ambiguous language in the Dayton peace accords on Bosnia had led to half-hearted attempts by the NATO peacekeeping force to arrest persons indicted by the tribunal.

The tribunal, therefore, depended mainly on governments to hand over those indicted but such cooperation was not forthcoming, she said. Arbour said the Kosovo draft agreement did contain language that parties should cooperate with the tribunal. But more important was cooperationfrom the peacekeepers.

She also asserted that the tribunal has jurisdiction to investigate human rights violations and related crimes under the Security Council resolution, but conceded that their efforts to investigate have been thwarted by Belgrade which has refused to issue visas.