1,000 desert Yugoslav army

Milosevic accepts vague peace plan as a start for talks

LEY

WASHINGTON -- As many as 1,000 troops are believed to have deserted Yugoslav army units in Kosovo to return to their homes in a new sign of growing internal strains on the Balkan nation's war effort, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The troops, apparently reservists, left in military vehicles after hearing that Yugoslav authorities had sought to suppress anti-war demonstrations that have sprung up in three Yugoslav towns this week, they said. "You're seeing, almost any place you look now, signs of problems for (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic," said Joe Lockhart, the White House spokesman. The reports, which echo stories aired on television in Yugoslavia's smaller and pro-Western republic of Montenegro, came as part of a stepped-up propaganda effort by NATO officials in the United States and Europe. Alliance officials have been giving detailed accounts of Yugoslav demonstrations held this week, and U.S. officials Wednesday also publicized a graphic videotape of what officials said was a massacre of ethnic Albanians by Yugoslav forces near the town of Izbica. On the diplomatic front, Russian envoy Viktor S. Chernomyrdin met with Milosevic in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on Wednesday. Afterward, Yugoslav officials said Milosevic had accepted as a starting point for talks a vague peace proposal drafted by Russia and seven Western nations two weeks ago, but with Yugoslav participation in the negotiations and an end to NATO bombing. The demonstrations in the Serbian communities of Cacak, Krusevac, and Alexandrovac were set off when residents learned that Yugoslav authorities had been withholding information on the extent of war casualties, said Kenneth H. Bacon, the chief Pentagon spokesman. Television and radio reports in Yugoslavia have said the demonstrators, many of whom were parents of troops, were demanding that reservists be returned from Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia's dominant republic, Serbia. When information about the extent of casualties filtered out, demonstrations sprang up, Bacon said, and the government's effort to snuff out the protests apparently caused the troops to bolt for home. Bacon said there were signs that military authorities resisted the troops' effort to desert, and there were "disputes, if not fights" before they left the province. Estimates put the number of deserters between 500 to 1,000. He called the desertions "a sign of some disarray," but said it was too early to tell whether they were an aberration or the beginning of a broader unraveling of the Yugoslav forces in the province. Bacon didn't disclose the source of U.S. officials' information but said it wasn't from Yugoslav media reports. NATO officials repeatedly have claimed to know of desertions and morale problems among Yugoslav troops, but they hadn't been specific until now. Montenegrin state television, meanwhile, reported differing versions of how the reservists returned to their communities. By one version, according to a television report, their departure had been "self-initiated," while by another, they had official permission to return to their towns. Montenegrin television offered some hints that the demonstrations may have set the stage for additional protests with a broader and more political tone. A state television broadcast showed that in Cacak, top officials spoke out strongly against Belgrade's policies at an indoor public forum Wednesday, with one speaker, Verica Barac, the local district attorney, calling for street protests. "All of this that is happening to us is so ugly, and somebody has to be responsible for it," Cacak Mayor Velimir Ilic declared to an ad hoc citizens group, dubbed the "civic parliament," in remarks that were recorded by Cacak television and supplied to the Montenegrin station. "The one who is going to sign the deal, and we know who, will bear huge responsibility," Ilic added, in a clear reference to Milosevic. "The Serbian people cannot forgive any longer. This country is destroyed, the state is ruined, this town is destroyed, and the ones who led us into this horrible adventure are well-known." NATO officials also claimed progress in the effort to destroy Milosevic's military machine. NATO warplanes have destroyed 90 percent of Yugoslav artillery in the province, or about 150 pieces, Bacon said. The bombing also has taken out about one-third of all armored vehicles, he said. The figures couldn't be independently confirmed. He said Yugoslav forces have been digging in their artillery in Kosovo along the southern border, apparently to defend against a feared NATO invasion. In such fixed positions, they are relatively easy for NATO pilots to find and destroy, he said. In Belgrade, Russian mediator Chernomyrdin emerged from seven hours of meetings with Milosevic and told reporters that settlement of the Kosovo conflict should rely on principles worked out two weeks ago by foreign ministers from Russia and seven Western nations -- the Group of 8. Itar-Tass news service quoted Chernomyrdin as saying that the Group of 8 principles "should be developed" but didn't say whether the Russian negotiator presented that idea to Milosevic or what his reaction might have been. Upon returning to Moscow after his quick trip to Belgrade, Chernomyrdin is scheduled to resume meetings today with U.S. Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott and Finnish President Marrti Ahtisaari, the special envoy of the European Union, to discuss a settlement for Kosovo.

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