SCHUESSEL: SITUATION IN KOSOVO DETERIORATING

( Editorial: --> 9361 ) BRIJUNI, June 6 (Hina) - The situation in Kosovo, where Serbian forces are using heavy weapons and conducting ethnic cleansing, is deteriorating and chances for resolving the crisis are not good, Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel said Saturday. Schuessel is attending a meeting of the Central European Initiative which is being held on the northern Adriatic island of Brijuni. The Austrian Foreign Minister arrived in Brijuni after he held talks with the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade and representatives of Kosovo Albanians in Pristina on Friday. Austria takes over the chairmanship of the European Union on July 1 this year. I am not optimistic, Schuessel said adding that the solution of the Kosovo crisis demanded a united and comprehensive strategy. That strategy should include cessation of violence, opening of Kosovo for humanitarian organisations and return of refugees, followed by political dialogue between the opposing parties and introduction of international presence in Kosovo, Schuessel said. He also proposed the exhumation of bodies of killed Albanians in the presence of foreign forensic experts. The Serbian authorities have engaged considerable military and police forces which are using heavy weapons while some parts of Kosovo are under control of the Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK), Schuessel said. Milosevic still insists that what is happening in Kosovo are attacks by Albanian terrorists and criminals while Albanian negotiators refuse to continue talks with the Serbian side unless conflicts cease and ethnic cleansing of Albanians is stopped, he added. (hina) rml 061324 MET jun 98