[ALBSA-Info] French deny they are pro-Serb in Kosova

[Iris Pilika]

French deny they are pro-Serb in Kosovo
By Bernard Edinger

PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) - France's Defence Ministry, stung by accusations
of
partiality and incompetence in keeping ethnic Albanians and Serbs apart in
volatile Kosovo, angrily insisted on Thursday that Paris was impartial in
the conflict.

"There is no favouritism by France. Our troops act scrupulously according
to
NATO guidelines," said ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau.

He was answering questions about an article in the Washington Post and the
International Herald Tribune saying French troops shirked duties in the
southern Yugoslav province when it came to protecting ethnic Albanians.

"Everyone knows the French contingent is in the most delicate of positions
in Kosovo, in between two hostile communities" Bureau said.

"The situation is not calm and it is getting worse but French authorities
are determined to obtain results," he said.

Bureau said some of the incidents reported by the Washington Post were
"factually correct but lacked the background that would have explained what
was happening".

The Washington Post said it interviewed nearly a dozen United Nations
police
officers in the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica who said French troops
were
present but failed to help them when they were attacked last week by Serb
civilians.

The policemen, who asked their names not be published because of pressure
from French area commanders, accused French troops of failing to rescue
ethnic Albanians being beaten by mobs and refusing to admit them later to a
French army hospital.

The article also said the French declined to take part in operations
against
suspected Serb troublemakers in Mitrovica, the only Kosovo town where Serbs
still control a neighbourhood.

Army Colonel Henri Pelissier gave a different account at the Paris news
briefing of the Mitrovica violence in which eight Albanians were killed by
mobs following a grenade attack on a Serb cafe.

"Our troops rescued 120 Albanian civilians that night and took them to
safety," Pelissier said.

He denied France had refused to treat wounded Albanians, saying the French
took them to a Moroccan military hospital better equipped than the French
installation.

The French officials defended the professionalism of their troops,
recalling
the men involved, from the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment, underwent
training in crowd control and use of non-lethal weapons before leaving
France.

They also said commanders of the KFOR peacekeeping force and United Nations
representatives denied the U.S. newspaper report and praised the French.

NATO is well aware of the widespread perception in Kosovo that the French
have not acted decisively enough against hardliners in Mitrovica, but also
realise the French have the toughest patch to police, a non-French diplomat
told Reuters.

"They have the trickiest position of all. They are literally in the firing
line. Whereas elsewhere in Kosovo it's pretty safe for KFOR, here there's a
virtual running conflict," he said.