THE CAFE PEACE DEAL

THE YUGOSLAV army caved in yesterday as the Kosovo peace plan was signed in a ramshackle roadside cafe.

NATO commander General Sir Mike Jackson spelt out the rules in the Europa 93 Coffee Shop for just how the Yugoslav army would pull out of Kosovo.

The Yugoslavs would be given one day to prove their withdrawal before NATO halted its bombing campaign.

NATO would ease its air campaign against Serbia, focusing on strictly military targets, pending President Slobodan Milosevic's implementation of the peace plan.

There will be a timetable to be kept and routes to be taken during withdrawal, which is expected to take seven days.

And if the Yugoslav authorities co-operate, the air strikes could end as early as tomorrow.

Only a few yards from the Blace border post where refugees first started to pour into Macedonia, Belgrade's Generals signed the withdrawal agreement.

But they had kept Allied commander General Jackson, nicknamed Darth Vader, waiting for more than two hours before signing up.

The Serb military leaders had agreed the previous night to show up at the white-walled cafe-bar at breakfast time. But as 9 o'clock came and went there was no sign of the Yugoslav delegation.

As time ticked by Lieutenant Colonel Robin Clifford, of the Royal Dragoon Guards, said: "It is unfortunate because they do not seem to be taking this as seriously as we would like them to. If they do not show up then the bombing continues."

A ring of steel surrounded the cafe as anxiety grew over why the Yugoslav generals had refused to arrive.

But they were sitting just across the border, inside Kosovo, furious at the siting of the summit set to decide the practicalities of their pull-out from the shattered and ethnically cleansed region.

As NATO's top brass and the world's press waited on the dirt forecourt, ethnic Albanian refugees waited nearby.

Just inside the Macedonia border is a holding camp in the fields where, at Easter, a biblical tide of humanity washed up from Kosovo, sparking off the biggest refugee crisis Europe has seen since the Second World War.

A few miles away thousands more refugees waited, too, in the two camps at Stankovic.

They had been there for months in the hope that NATO would win back their homeland and they could return.

At exactly 11.38am, General Jackson swooped into the gravel car park in his armour-plated convoy, and joined the jam of Italian machine-gun mounted armoured cars, tanks and Garibaldi Brigade elite troops.

Hardened British bodyguards from the Military Police also guarded the cafe.

They surrounded the general as he walked into the cafe with its white plastic chairs and chipped tabletops.

Eighteen minutes later, escorted by Macedonian civilian police and MPs, came the Yugoslav contingent.

The eight-strong delegation was led by moustachioed Lieutenant- Colonel General Svetozar Marjanovic, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav army.

No one saluted as they took the building's nine steps to surrender.

Just behind, a young captain carried in a pile of rolled maps so the generals could point out Serb positions and the routes they will take out of Kosovo.

A Serb patrol armed with AK47s appeared over the ridge of the hill overlooking the cafe.

Inside the cafe the atmosphere was said to be cordial, with NATO supplying coffee and tea as the talks went on for five hours. Col Clifford said as the day progressed: "It is very business- like. They are going through the agreement line by line and it is taking time because everything has to be translated.

"But we will take all the time in the world to make sure the Yugoslav army and the militias leave Kosovo."

Later, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea told a press conference in Brussels: "The withdrawal must include "all organisations with a military capability," including armed civilian groups.

"This will involve, of course, units of the regular army, but also armed civilian groups, national guards, border police, army reserves, military police, intelligence services, and any other groups or individuals that are designated by General Jackson.

"It will also mean that as these forces leave they will have to stick to a schedule using designated assembly areas, designated routes and designated areas that will have to be vacated. Air defence weapons including radar and artillery must be moved out of the province "very quickly" to allow intensive NATO surveillance of the province to begin.

"The withdrawal must be ended within seven days. But until we see the beginning of the effective withdrawal of Yugoslav forces, the NATO air campaign will continue."

"Mr Shea said there were plans for a "buffer zone" to be established on the Serb side of the border with Kosovo, but the details would have to be worked out by General Jackson.

He added that all Serb troops in Kosovo would be expected to return to Serbia, not move into Montenegro.

The international force moving into Kosovo would occupy the entire province.

"We intend to have soldiers of the international security force in every village and on every street corner," he said.

General Jackson would also be demanding details of the location of land mines in Kosovo - anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines and booby traps. "Mr Shea said: "In our dealings with President Milosevic we remember: once bitten, twice shy.""

Meanwhile, he said, NATO preparations for a peace implementation force are in full swing. Details of "Operation Joint Guardian" were to arrive at NATO headquarters late last night for approval by Alliance ambassadors.

"We hope that the Kosovo Liberation Army will renounce violence and act in conformity with conditions laid down in the peace plan," Dr Shea said.

NATO military spokesman General Walter Jertz said that even as yesterday's peace talks were being arranged, NATO planes were keeping up the pressure, flying 500 missions in the previous 24 hours.

The allies hit "strategic targets" in Serbia and attacked armoured vehicles and heavy weapons in Kosovo.

As Mr Shea said: "It is not enough to talk about withdrawing. If I can use a term from chess, President Milosevic, it's your move.""

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