Helsinki/Brussels; 31 May 1999 (RFE/RL) - Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari says talks tomorrow in Bonn on the Kosovo crisis will determine whether he will accompany Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin to Belgrade for a meeting with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
The talks in Bonn are to include Ahtisaari, who is the EU's Balkan envoy, as well as Chernomyrdin and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Ahtisaari said yesterday that he has some doubts about Milosevic's reported acceptance of a peace plan for Kosovo proposed by the G-7 countries plus Russia.
But EU foreign ministers in Brussels today backed a mission to Belgrade by Ahtisaari. The EU ministers also said they expect Milosevic to live up to his statements by making a "verifiable commitment" to the peace plan and a UN Security Council resolution.
Meanwhile, NATO said its warplanes struck military targets near the southern Serbian town of Surdulica overnight. But the alliance is denying Serbian claims that NATO missiles hit a sanatorium there. Belgrade says at least 20 patients were killed.
But EU foreign ministers in Brussels today backed a mission to Belgrade by Ahtisaari. The EU ministers also said they expect Milosevic to live up to his statements by making a "verifiable commitment" to the peace plan and a UN Security Council resolution.
Meanwhile, NATO said its warplanes struck military targets near the southern Serbian town of Surdulica overnight. But the alliance is denying Serbian claims that NATO missiles hit a sanatorium there. Belgrade says at least 20 patients were killed.
