By Michael Roddy
PRISTINA (Reuters) - NATO supreme commander General Wesley Clark was heading for Kosovo Monday in a bid to break an impasse in efforts to get former Kosovo guerrillas to agree a final demobilization plan, NATO sources said.
Clark was expected after all-night talks between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the United Nations and the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force failed to reach agreement on the future role of the former rebels in a civil protection unit.
The deadline for agreeing a future role for the 10,000- strong, ethnic Albanian KLA had been Sunday midnight.
The KLA, which fought Serb forces in Kosovo before KFOR peacekeepers arrived in mid-June, has been accused by Yugoslav authorities of leading a campaign of violence against the province's Serb minority. The KLA denies the charge.
KFOR commander Lieutenant General Sir Mike Jackson, while warning the guerrillas they were putting the stability of Kosovo at risk, extended the deadline for their total disarmament until Tuesday midnight to allow more time for talks.
NATO military sources confirmed Clark would be arriving, although details about when he was due and when talks would resume were not available.
Talks between Jackson, U.N. special representative Bernard Kouchner and, on behalf of the KLA, provisional prime minister Hashim Thaqi and rebel chief of staff General Agim Ceku, broke off without agreement early in the morning.
At a briefing later, NATO officials said the key sticking point was the weaponry that former guerrillas would be able to retain as members of a civilian Kosovo Corps, and rules on access to the weapons.
KFOR spokesman Major Roland Lavoie said KFOR was proposing that members of the Kosovo Corps have a total of 200 weapons, strictly for bodyguard purposes and for guarding ``vital and key institutions.''
``They put on the table a number that would be closer to 400,'' he said.
But the issue was not so much the number of weapons as the regime governing access to them. ``Will they be guarded by former KLA or by KFOR?'' one commentator asked.
Lavoie said General Jackson, with Kouchner's agreement, had extended the deadline ``to allow Mr. Thaqi to reconsider his position.''
But Lavoie said recruiting for the Kosovo Corps would continue, even though one of the main purposes of the corps was to find a future civilian outlet for former rebels.
``One of the main objectives of this program was to involve the UCK (KLA in Albanian) members who have been key players in the return of most of the population here in Kosovo,'' he said.
``They deserve a worthwhile place in this society and the Kosovo Corps is a key element in the return to their civil life.
Jackson said he was satisfied the guerrillas had disarmed in accordance with the agreement signed last June but he was giving them another 48 hours as a legal force to allow more time for talks on the weapons issue.
NATO said more than 10,000 KLA weapons were now in secure storage sites, including 9,000 small arms, 800 machineguns, 300 anti-tank weapons and 178 mortars. Western military sources acknowledge, however, that many weapons remain in circulation.
International officials are anxious that the new 5,000- strong Kosovo Corps be as civilian in nature as possible, seeing it as a force to help rebuild the war-scarred province and assist with humanitarian emergencies.
But many KLA members view it as the nucleus of a future army for an
independent Kosovo. That is at odds with the prevailing international view
that Kosovo should enjoy substantial autonomy but stay within Yugoslavia.
