The US envoy to the Balkans, Mr Robert Gelbard, said yesterday a peaceful solution to the conflict in Kosovo was still possible but time was running out as NATO accelerates its planning and preparations.
Mr Gelbard, who earlier met the Bosnian Serb President, Ms Biljana Plavsic, and Bosnian Serb Prime Minister, Mr Milorad Dodik, criticised the Yugoslav government's mishandling of the crisis and its "extraordinary brutality".
He said the actions of the government of Yugoslavia in the first three months of the crisis produced a "dramatic radicalisation and polarisation of the situation in Kosovo".
More than 300 people have been killed this year in an offensive by Serbian police and the Yugoslav army against separatist ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the southern Serbian province. About 90 per cent of Kosovo's population are ethnic Albanians.
"The USA is not a supporter of either side. We have made it absolutely clear that we oppose independence for Kosovo," Mr Gelbard said. "But unfortunately I occasionally feel that the (Yugoslav) government is the best ally the Kosovo Liberation Army has in radicalising the situation."
A meeting between Mr Gelbard and KLA leaders last week met with a cool response from European governments, who believe the moderate Mr Ibrahim Rugova should be the sole representative of ethnic Albanian Kosovars. Mr Rugova is an advocate of non-violent methods.
Mr Gelbard also urged Bosnians and their leaders to remain distant from the conflict in Kosovo and said he was concerned about rumours that people from Bosnia's Serb republic were preparing to fight on the Yugoslav government's side.
"This would be a great error, both for those individuals and the Republika Srpska (Serb republic)," he said. "We feel . . . that it is absolutely critical to avoid any kind of foreign participation in this already tragic conflict."
Earlier in Sarajevo, the Polish Foreign Minister and the current chairman of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Mr Bronislaw Geremek, also stressed that Bosnians should remain focused on their own peace process.
Mr Geremek said the Kosovo crisis was becoming a priority for the OSCE and he hoped the body's recent mission to Belgrade would be treated with respect and goodwill. The OSCE mission, led by the former Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Felipe Gonzalez, had presented a three-point plan to provide the basis for a resolution of the conflict, he said.
A Bosnian Serb accused of overseeing atrocities against Muslims and Croats yesterday became the first person to stand trial for genocide during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
Milan Kovacevic is charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape, torture, and killings in three notorious camps in northwest Bosnia, where orchestrated "ethnic-cleansing" was first publicised in the Guardian newspaper.
A former deputy mayor of Prijedor, and later director of the municipal medical centre, Mr Kovacevic was seized by an SAS snatch-squad last year. Mr Kovacevic (57) pleaded not guilty to the 15 charges against him. If convicted, he faces a maximum life sentence. The indictments say the three camps were operated in a way designed to destroy the Bosnian Muslim and Croat peoples as national, ethnic or religious groups.