Clark ridicules Milosevic for failures in Kosova

``He failed to defeat the KLA (Kosova Liberation Army) and he failed to enlist Russian materiel support to achieve his aims.''
``He had to give up either Kosova or his head and he gave up Kosova. Now he is fighting to save his own head,'' he added.

ROME, Oct 7 (Reuters) - NATO's supreme commander in Europe on Thursday ridiculed Yugoslav President Milosevic over his failures in Kosova and said Italy's reputation within the alliance had been enhanced by the Balkan conflict. General Wesley Clark, never one to hold his tongue in NATO's rhetorical war with the Yugoslavian leader, noted Milosevic had failed to keep control of the southern Serb province of Kosova and was now struggling to cling to power in Belgrade.

``In January this year Milosevic told me that Kosova was more important to him than his own head,'' Clark recalled at the launch of a book-length interview with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema on Italy's role in the conflict.

D'Alema and United Nations civilian administrator for Kosova Bernard Kouchner were also present.

``(Milosevic) failed to shoot down NATO aircraft in any significant numbers, he failed to destabilise neighbouring countries and he failed to intimidate and fracture the alliance,'' Clark said.

``He failed to defeat the KLA (Kosova Liberation Army) and he failed to enlist Russian materiel support to achieve his aims.''

``He had to give up either Kosova or his head and he gave up Kosova. Now he is fighting to save his own head,'' he added.

ITALY TURNED NATO THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Clark, who will step down as NATO supreme commander in April -- three months early -- said Italy's Adriatic airbases were vital to the alliance's 36,000 sorties, which dumped 23,000 bombs and missiles on Yugoslavia during the three-month battle.

``Italy did a magnificent job during the war, starting with the use of its airbase at Aviano right through to the outstanding participation of Italian airmen,'' he said.

``It was Italy's leadership that allowed NATO's strategic theory to be transformed into strategic practice.''

D'Alema, whose book ``Kosova -- The Italians and the War'' is based on an interview with the prime minister by an Italian journalist, said the Kosova conflict had been an important test which Italy had passed.

But he said Italy and Europe had to address the imbalance between their weakness and U.S. military might.

``If Europe wants to count for more...it has to seriously confront the problem of its own (lack of) strength,'' said the former communist who took over as prime minister just six months before NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia began.

He called for a common European defence policy to allow Europe to act alone when Washington chose not to participate.

Kosova'S FUTURE

D'Alema said he did not favour independence for Kosova but acknowledged it was difficult to see how the province could deal with Belgrade while Milosevic remained in power.

``It's not easy to imagine a Kosova of the future tied in some way to Yugoslavia but if you imagine a change in the leadership in Yugoslavia it becomes easier to envisage,'' he said.

Kouchner said the U.N's objectives in Kosova were threefold.

Firstly, it had to ensure the security of all minorities, including Serbs; secondly, it had to help re-establish an administrative network in the province, as virtually all ethnic Albanians had been forced out of administrative posts; thirdly, Kosova had to be shepherded towards democratic rule.

Kouchner rejected criticism of the speed with which the U.N. Mission in Kosova (UNMIK) had acted since the province effectively came under international control in mid-June.

``I've been involved in several U.N. operations and I can say this one is moving more quickly than any other,'' he said.

World Bank to help Kosova with up to $60 million

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday said it plans to spend up to $60 million over the next 18 months to help with the reconstruction and economic recovery of Kosova.

The bank said the first $25 million would be made available from the bank's profits and would be given to the war-ravaged area as a grant. The bank said the money was part of its strategy on Kosova which also includes helping coordinate aid to the region as well as offering policy and technical advice.

``This welcome new strategy allows us to help Kosova with its reconstruction efforts, and eventually pave the way for the province to embark on a transition process toward a modern, market economy,'' said Christiaan Poortman, World Bank coordinator for Southeast Europe.

EIB rejects accusation not fit for Balkans lending

BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) rejected on Thursday an accusation from an east European environmental group that it was unfit to help finance reconstruction in the Balkans because of lack of transparency.

``I must completely reject the accusation of lack of transparency,'' the EIB wrote in reply to the claim made by CEE Bankwatch, the name given to a network of non-governmental organisations monitoring international financial institutions in eastern Europe.

The EIB letter, a copy of which was released to the media, noted the Bank had in the past held yearly meetings with CEE Bankwatch to discuss its activities and would ``be glad to continue discussions with you on a frank and constructive basis.''

The EIB, the multilateral lending arm of the European Union, has been given a key role in the Balkans by EU nations, which are expected to pick up most of the tab of the post-Kosova war rebuilding effort.

The Bank recently published a list of projects in the Balkans it said would cost around six billion euros ($6.45 billion) over three to five years to finance.

Copies of its Balkans report are available on its website (www.eib.org)

Hungarians make their mark in Kosova peace force

By Michael Roddy
PRISTINA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Hungarian peacekeepers in Kosova were perplexed when they unfurled their red, white and green flags and people shouted: ``Italians, Italians.''

They have also been painting ``Hungarian Contingent'' on their Soviet-era vehicles to avoid being mistaken for Russians, whose ties to Yugoslavia make them hated by Kosova's Albanian majority.

But two and a half months into their first combat assignment as a new NATO member, the 324-strong Hungarian contingent in the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission is making its own mark in Kosova, where Hungarian involvement dates back centuries.

``I am proud of being here for my company,'' said Captain Laszlo Fabian of the 62nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion, whose home base is in the economically-depressed southern Hungarian town of Hodmezovasarhely, near Szeged.

Fabian and other soldiers of the 62nd say their battalion has provided more recruits than any other for Hungary's first combat role under NATO since joining the alliance on March 12.

``We've been training for something like this since 1997,'' Fabian, a 31-year-old career soldier, told Reuters.

``Since that year all our battalion became contract soldiers, and this is the kind of task we have been preparing for.''

HUNGARY'S LONG INVOLVEMENT IN Kosova

Hungarian fighters have been in Kosova before, notably six centuries ago when they fought alongside the Serbs, Albanians and other Balkan nations in a famous battle against the Turks on the ``Field of Blackbirds,'' just outside Pristina, in 1389.

Today Hungary is on the other side, part of a NATO force which took over Kosova when the Serb police and army left under terms of a peace deal to end the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Although Serb massacres of ethnic Albanians by the thousands have now been well documented, the Hungarians say they are trying to maintain strict neutrality in their peacekeeping role.

``We can see what the possibilities are -- that the Kosova rebels will be organised into a new Kosova Protection Force, and this is good for their future,'' said Major Jozsef Kovacs, the acting commander of the contingent.

``But now we have to see what will be the future of the Serb minority here...The peacekeepers have to find a neutral position and help protect the Serbs and the other minorities.''

The deployment to Kosova could not have come at a better time for the Hungarian army, which has undergone a wrenching and demoralising transition since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the communist Warsaw Pact military alliance.

Since 1990, the Hungarian army has been drastically cut back, from 155,700 personnel, including civilian staff, in 1989, to about 60,000 soldiers today, according to the defence ministry and NATO sources.

``Morale is low -- but it is not critical,'' Kovacs said, adding in the next breath that Hungary's first ``clearly military'' mission under NATO is doing a lot to change that.

Hungary's is one of the smallest contingents in the 25-nation peacekeeping force serving in Kosova. It is dwarfed by big NATO powers like the United States with more than 6,000 soldiers, Britain with more than 5,000, and Germany, France and Italy, with just under 5,000 apiece.

The Hungarians can only look with envy at the Americans' low-slung Humvee jeeps and the huge armoured tanks the bigger NATO powers take for spins on Kosova's ruined roads.

But Hungary has been assigned one of the most visible roles of any in Kosova -- providing security for the KFOR headquarters installed in a bright yellow former film studio at the top of a hill overlooking Pristina.

The job is a bit of a mixed blessing since Hungarian is rated among the world's most difficult languages.

COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS

Visitors to the headquarters sometimes have difficulty making themselves understood, and are startled to hear the Hungarians at the gatepost rattle off commands to one another in a language alien to almost every other in Europe.

``We have to speak English and sometimes it is difficult but we are all doing our best,'' said Staff Sergeant Nandor Lantos, on gate duty one afternoon.

There have been incidents in which senior Russian and French officers have tried to ignore the Hungarians and barge on through. Sources said the problems were ironed out, but just in case, extra sandbags were put out front to make a buffer zone.

The Hungarians have impressed their counterparts from the bigger NATO powers with how fast they have adapted to a strange and difficult environment, and a new role in NATO.

``From my objective point of view they are doing an excellent job,'' said Major Ole Irgens, a KFOR spokesman. ``And it is good to see former Warsaw Pact countries involved, since it may take some of the focus off the Russians.''

While the Hungarians realise they have a lot to learn and do to become fully integrated into NATO, their location in the region, and status as the only NATO ally with a border on Yugoslavia, give them a special perspective on Kosova.

``Some of the soldiers from the bigger countries just see this as an ethnic conflict where one side lost,'' said Major Dezso Kiss, the press liaison officer for the contingent.

``But it is important also to realise that the battle in 1389, although the Serbs lost, was where the Serb tribes came together and started the Serb nation.

``It is important to have that sense of history and that is why it is good that we are here,'' he added.

Other Hungarian soldiers see Kosova through eyes already familiar with ethnic problems at home, between Hungarians and gypsies, and with deep-seated poverty, leftover from communism and only slowly being alleviated in booming Hungary.