[ALBSA-Info] Daily Balkan News

[irma spaho]

>NEWS SUMMARY
>www.balkan-info.com
>
>
>Dateline:  Brussels
>Source:  Agence France Presse (AFP)
>30/03/00
>
>USD 2.4 BILLION PLEDGED FOR BALKAN RECONSTRUCTION
>Officials of the World Bank and the European Commission, co-sponsors of the
>Balkans donors conference, announced on 30 March a USD 2.4 billion aid 
>grant
>for short-term reconstruction projects in South-eastern Europe, AFP
>reported.  "The results have significantly exceeded our expectations," AFP
>quoted Bodo Hombach, the co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for
>South-eastern Europe.  The aid money, pledged by approximately 80 countries
>and organisations, will be used to finance reconstruction projects
>throughout the Balkan region.
>
>
>Dateline:  Stockholm
>Source:  Agence France Presse (AFP)
>30/03/00
>
>ROBERTSON: WITHOUT DONOR MONEY KOSOVO MISSION MAY FAIL
>NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on 30 March warned that the 
>civilian
>administration in Kosovo needs financial support, or NATO will not attain
>its objectives in the province, AFP reported.  "It¹s for the international
>community to make the decision as to whether they want it to succeed and
>whether they¹re willing to back up fine words with sufficient financial
>resources," AFP quoted Robertson.  The Secretary-General was in Stockholm
>for meetings with Swedish defence officials.
>
>
>
>Dateline:  Washington
>Source:  Agence France Presse (AFP)
>30/03/00
>
>U.S. DISPATCHES ELITE TROOPS TO KOSOVO, WEAPONRY TO MACEDONIA
>Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon announced that the U.S. would deploy
>additional reconnaissance troops to Kosovo and tanks and heavy artillery to
>Macedonia, AFP reported.  The 125 elite troops will be used to "provide 
>more
>eyes and ears" in Kosovo and the armour and artillery "will provide more
>force protection assetsŠand serve as a deterrent to any mischief that might
>take place along the borders of Macedonia," Bacon said, according to AFP.
>The measures come amid increased border tensions in the Presevo Valley
>between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
>
>
>Dateline:  Washington
>Source:  Agence France Presse (AFP)
>30/03/00
>
>U.S. WARNS ALBANIAN EXTREMISTS
>U.S. State Department spokesman James Foley issued a stern warning to
>Albanian militias in Kosovo saying that peacekeepers would not tolerate
>violence in the province, AFP reported.  In the 30 March remarks Foley
>stated that the U.S. was "disappointed" that former KLA chief Hashim Thaci
>failed to live up to a recent pledge that the militias "would disarm, would
>shed their uniforms" and "refrain from violence," AFP quoted.  Foley noted
>that peacekeepers had intervened in the past against the militias and would
>do so again, according to the wire service.  Earlier in the month U.S.
>troops raided bases belonging to ethnic Albanian insurgents, seizing
>ammunition crates and uniforms.
>
>
>Dateline:  Belgrade
>Source:  Agence France Presse (AFP)
>30/03/00
>
>MITROVICA SERB LEADER CALLS FOR RETURN OF 5,000 REFUGEES
>Mitrovica Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic on 30 March called on the EU to
>support the return to Kosovo of 5,000 Serbs who left after the arrival of
>NATO peacekeepers last year, AFP reported.  According to Ivanovic, the
>repatriation programme should begin this May and will return Kosovar Serbs
>to 15 villages located in north-west Kosovo.  "I asked the EU mission to
>help this action, to assure the means and to help the reconstruction of
>houses, because they have all been burned down," AFP quoted Ivanovic.  "It
>will also be a test for the Albanians, because if they do not accept this
>plan, everybody will understand that they want a Kosovo without Serbs, an
>ethnically-pure Kosovo," he continued.
>
>

>
>
>Dateline:  Paris
>Source:  Associated Press (AP)
>30/03/00
>
>FRENCH COLONEL ACCUSED OF LEAKING INFORMATION IS REASSIGNED
>French Colonel Jean-Michel Mechain has been reassigned to a new post
>following accusations that he divulged classified information about French
>peacekeepers in Kosovo, AP reported.  The 30 March announcement by the
>French Defence Ministry comes in the wake of Mechain being placed under
>formal investigation last week and spending 48 hours in jail before being
>freed by a judge, according to the wire service.  Mechain allegedly leaked
>information to journalists indicating tension between French peacekeepers
>and U.N. administrator for Kosovo Bernard Koucher, who they perceived to be
>anti-Serb and pro-Albanian.

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