Speaking at an extremely animated news conference at the Yugoslav ambassador's
residence, Milutinovic laid stress on a political agreement for Kosovo-Metohija based, he stressed again, on the 10 principles of the Contact Group.
"You are probably familiar with the context of the Contact Group's statement and with what the Contact Group states' foreign ministers said at Rambouillet today.
"You have probably noticed that the Contact Group ministers worked with us for
nearly 12 hours today. This is a proof that the problem is complex, difficult and cannot be settled in the short time originally planned by the Contact Group," Milutinovic said.
It is a problem, he explained, which has been in evidence for decades and which has in various ways been fanned and stoked, so that it cannot be solved in a fortnight now.
"This is why the Contact Group has been forced to extend the meeting at Rambouillet by another few days, three days in fact. We think that this, too, is not enough and that we shall need much more time," he said.
The Serbian president went on to say:
"We have succeeded tonight, at the initiative of our delegation, to save in a way the political document, because we have given, in seven main chapters, a series of creative ideas which have helped make substantial progress on the political document.
"I think that this was the big breakthrough, which happened practically tonight, on the basis of which the Contact Group was able to take the decision to extend the Rambouillet talks.
"We have managed to make a change in the approach to the problem. At last, even the international mediators have realized that the 10 points of the Contact Group must truly be the guiding concept for all documents at this meeting and that they must be in accord with this."
However, when stock was being taken today of what has been achieved, it turned out in communication with the Contact Group that it is the Kosovo-Metohija Albanian representatives who have refused the political document, Milutinovic said.
"This is another proof that we were right when we asked the Contact Group and the Kosovo-Metohija Albanian delegation to affirm the Contact Group's ten principles and that they sign them, so we should know were we stand," Milutinovic said.
He noted that "some international mediators, especially those in the U.S. delegation, have successfully turned the problem around, both at the conference and in the public, so that the main problem has turned out to be deployment of troops to Kosovo-Metohija and enforcement of the accord, rather than the reaching of the accord in the first place."
The reason for this switch, according to Milutinovic, was readily apparent on Saturday - to conceal the position of the Kosovo-Metohija Albanian delegation who de facto do not accept a political agreement.
"We have therefore insisted and continue to insist that political agreement must be taken all the way, because it is the key," Milutinovic stressed.
Without a political agreement, there will be nothing to implement, he added.
He stressed that the principles must be the basis of the agreement.
"If the agreement is good, if it satisfies everybody, first of all the national communities living in Kosovo-Metohija, then no troops are required for its implementation."
Milutinovic explained that what the state delegation has been working for and what needs to be put in the form of a text "has produced an approach which means true equality for the national communities, not equality that merely looks good on paper, but equality in all bodies of power."
These are questions of power-sharing between the republic and the autonomous province of Kosovo-Metohija, what powers are to be transferred to the province, and this creates conditions for a wide autonomy, Milutinovic said.
"We agreed about the implementation of federal and republican laws, what decisions should be taken by the provincial assembly and, something that was quite difficult, about the work of the judiciary on the territory of the autonomous province of Kosovo-Metohija."
He stressed that "all this clearly shows the position of Serbia as the republic and the position of the autonomous province, all in line with the constitution of the Republic of Serbia.
"Of course, there are many solutions that have not been seen in the known autonomies. We have made a major effort to achieve this and I think we are well on the way to do it in the next few days," Milutinovic said.
During all the talks "we have labored under extreme pressure and attacks on our country to accept foreign troops to enforce a non-existent agreement.
"This reveals the true goal, namely deployment of foreign troops to a part of our territory, not a political accord and a true solution of the problem," he explained.
"Today, the Contact Group very clearly realized what we have always been saying and insisting on. We have been showing that the Contact Group as a whole has not agreed about a so-called package deal where a political agreement and its enforcement are tied together and this is why all this has taken so long."
In conclusion, Milutinovic said that the state delegation hopes for the best in the resumption of the talks at Rambouillet.
"We shall continue to strive to cling to the principles we quoted at the start, on our arrival for the talks, on the subject of which it was made quite clear at today's rounding up of the work so far who in fact does not want a political agreement."
