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Yugoslav President Brands Kosovo Europe's Top Problem As “Bastards” Threaten Peace
by Richard Lein
ZAGREB (AFP) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica Friday branded Kosovo Europe's number-one problem, threatening stability in the Balkans and beyond, while the province's U.N. chief blamed "bastards" for undermining the chances for peace.
Speaking to EU and fellow Balkan leaders gathered for a special summit here, Kostunica said: "Kosovo today is certainly the biggest problem in Europe, which could provoke many other conflicts that seem to have been put out, in the Balkans and elsewhere."
"Kosovo is the only region where terror still reigns and the exodus of people from their ancestral homeland continues," he said, referring to strife between the province's ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority.
U.N. Security Council resolution 1244 on Kosovo "remains a dead letter which cannot achieve what it must: the preservation of a multi-ethnic Kosovo and creating secure conditions for all" in the province, he said.
"Without complete respect for this resolution, then we won't have peace in Kosovo, the Balkans or Europe," Kostunica said.
Speaking to reporters after the EU-Balkan summit, Kouchner said he was deeply concerned by a fresh wave of conflict and bloodshed that risked bringing "black clouds" back over Kosovo.
"Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo are finally starting to live together," he said. "If some bastards are planting bombs and killing people, then this fledgling detente will disappear."
On Thursday, Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova's top aide Xhemaji Mustafa was shot dead in Pristina, a day after a bomb attack on the home of Belgrade's top representative in Pristina which killed a member of staff.
Kouchner said he was outraged by the murder and that it appeared to be a political killing.
But he was optimistic about prospects for a peaceful resolution to tension in a buffer zone on the Kosovo-Serbia border where three Serbian policemen were still missing and presumed dead after their patrol was attacked Tuesday.
Serbian police Friday gave NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Kosovo 72 hours to put an end to attacks by ethnic Albanian guerrillas, warning that if the situation is not resolved they would return to the area.
They also said 1,055 people, most of them civilians, had been killed in Kosovo between the time KFOR arrived in June last year and November 18, the news agency Beta reported Friday.
The police said that 5,259 "terrorist attacks" were carried out during that period.
Kouchner welcomed Kostunica's recognition of the U.N. resolution, which calls for elections and substantial autonomy for Kosovo, and renewed his call for the vote to be held this early next year.
"For the peace process this is absolutely necessary," he said, adding: "Kostunica and the Serbian authorities will get responsible people to talk with."
Municipal elections held in Kosovo in October saw Rugova's moderate followers eclipse former guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), whose clashes with Serb forces in 1998-99 led to NATO air strikes last year against then-president Slobodan Milosevic's regime.
But Kouchner chided the international community, describing all countries on the U.N. Security Council except for the United States as "very reluctant" to hold elections in Kosovo next year.
"I think this is a big mistake," said Kouchner. "When you corner people, when you are not offering them [anything], especially people who have suffered, they fight."
He also warned EU and Balkan leaders that extending Serbia's December 23rd elections to Kosovo risks a slide back to violence.
"I sincerely hope that the Serbian parliamentary elections in December will further strengthen the democratic forces in Serbia. I fully understand its political importance," he said.
"But I fear that extending them in the territory of Kosovo may seriously endanger the already fragile peace process there. We may again slide back into conflict," he said.
Kouchner said he expects a solution to be found, but warned in no case would the U.N. administration organize the vote.
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