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Clinton willing to negotiate for less than a 'total victory'
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
 resident Clinton yesterday softened his demands for a Kosovo agreement, saying the composition of a peacekeeping force is "subject to negotiation" and emphasizing he is not seeking "total victory" in the conflict.
Mr. Clinton also invited the United Nations to give its imprimatur to a peacekeeping force that the White House once insisted be led by NATO or at least have NATO at its core. Yesterday, the president allowed for a "security force in which NATO plays a role."
The new flexibility by Mr. Clinton, who has generally taken a much harder line on Kosovo, came as the White House intensified efforts to find a diplomatic solution that would allow Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic a face-saving out.
Mr. Clinton entertained Serbian peace feelers in back-to-back meetings at the White House with Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia's Balkans envoy, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who negotiated the release of three U.S. prisoners of war over the weekend. Both men had met with Mr. Milosevic in Belgrade in recent days.
"Total victory . . . is not what I am asking for," the president said in a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. "What I am asking for are the minimal conditions necessary for the Kosovars
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to be able to go home."
While Mr. Clinton remained firm in his demands that Serbian forces withdraw from Kosovo and allow ethnic Albanians to return and govern themselves, he signaled a willingness to accommodate Mr. Milosevic's aversion to a strictly NATO peacekeeping force. He said the United States is "open to a broad security force."
"We would welcome the United Nations' embrace of such a security force.
"I personally think it is quite important that the Russians, perhaps the Ukrainians, perhaps others who come from the Orthodox tradition, who have close ties to the Serbs, be a part of such a mission."
A senior administration official insisted the president did not backpedal from his previous position that NATO form the foundation of any peacekeeping force.
"There is no difference between a strong NATO element and NATO at the core," the official said. He added that the president was not advocating a "mamby-pamby" security force.
But the president's tone yesterday was unmistakably conciliatory, even toward Serbian sympathizers like Russian President Boris Yeltsin. "I have been quite encouraged by President Yeltsin's involvement here, by Mr. Chernomyrdin's involvement," Mr. Clinton said.
The president's deferential posture stood in stark contrast to the ominous warnings emanating from Moscow in recent weeks.
Ten days ago, Mr. Chernomyrdin said nations embroiled in the Kosovo crisis and NATO oil embargo of Yugoslavia "may slip toward a third world war, the final war."
Fifteen days earlier, Mr. Yeltsin said that if NATO pushes Russia into military involvement in Kosovo, "there will be a European war for sure, and possibly world war."
Yesterday, Mr. Chernomyrdin emerged from his meeting with Mr. Clinton and announced: "We got closer to a diplomatic solution." Speaking through an interpreter, he added: "It is a very complicated issue. We will keep on working. We remain hopeful. The stakes are very high."
Mr. Chernomyrdin gave the president a letter from Mr. Yeltsin that proposed methods of ending NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia. The former Russian prime minister said Mr. Clinton was "naturally" willing to halt the bombing campaign, but the two men remained at odds over conditions for a cease-fire, which Mr. Chernomyrdin called "the main issue."
"Under the right circumstances, we would be willing to have a bombing pause," Mr. Clinton said. "But we would need acceptance of the basic principles and at least the beginning of withdrawal of Serb forces."
He added: "Our air campaign cannot stop until Mr. Milosevic shows he is ready to end the nightmare for the people of Kosovo."
A senior administration official cautioned that such a scenario does not seem imminent, Russian diplomatic efforts notwithstanding. He said U.S.-Russian talks on a Kosovo solution could take "days or weeks. This is not something that's going to result in some magical breakthrough in the next nanosecond."
The president spent 90 minutes with Mr. Chernomyrdin before deciding not to keep Mr. Jackson waiting any longer and sending the Russian along to meet with Vice President Al Gore. Mr. Jackson gave the president a letter, this one from Mr. Milosevic himself.
The civil rights leader, who earlier in the day called NATO arrogant for intensifying air strikes after the prisoners of war were released, tried to get Mr. Clinton to offer the Serbs an overture of good faith instead. He even suggested the president thank Mr. Milosevic for releasing the prisoners, a scenario called unlikely by White House aides.
"Those little steps in the right direction can spare all of us a long and bloody war," Mr. Jackson said. "We are strong enough to express courtesy."
Mr. Clinton said: "Let me say how very pleased I am that our three servicemen are coming home from Serbia and to express my thanks to Reverend Jackson and his entire delegation for their hard work in securing their freedom."
But later, the president said he was concerned that the prisoner release was at least in part a propaganda ploy by Mr. Milosevic to sow dissension among NATO members.
"We have to have some indication, other than the uprooting of another 10,000 people, that the release of the pilots is somehow related to a general change in the human attitude toward the people of Kosovo," Mr. Clinton said. "And we don't have that yet."
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