Belgrade for its part said Tuesday it was ready to "cut a deal" based on the Bonn accord despite reservations over some of its provisions. Of course, mediators still face the challenge of choreographing the sequence of agreements, troop withdrawals and bombing halts that will define the peace process. G8 envoys met in Bonn Wednesday to finesse the peace plan and draft a U.N. resolution authorizing it. The big losers in any diplomatic solution may be the Kosovo Liberation Army, who had enjoyed something of an informal alliance with NATO during the past eight weeks. The G8 principles call for them to be disarmed, while guaranteeing a political autonomy that falls short of their demand for independence from Yugoslavia. The insurgents are unlikely to accept those terms -- but then, should they choose to fight on, the KLA will become the peacekeepers' problem rather than Milosevic's.
Can Finnish President Make Kosovo Peace Fly?
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With ground troops off the table as an option, NATO's Kosovo exit strategy now rests squarely on the diplomatic corps -- and the growing involvement of Finland's president suggests that a breakthrough on that front may be on the horizon. President Martti Ahtisaari met for two days with Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Helsinki before Chernomyrdin left for Belgrade Wednesday and Talbott departed for NATO headquarters. Ahtisaari, an accomplished peacemaker with extensive European and U.N. credentials, has been tapped by European NATO members to represent them as a mediator, but has said he'll go to Belgrade only when Russia and NATO have resolved their differences so as to deny Milosevic any wiggle room. Despite signing on to the Bonn accord agreed by the G8 countries, which comprise Russia and the leading NATO countries, Moscow and Washington have been arguing over the nature of a Kosovo peace force and over the phasing of an end to the alliance's bombing campaign.