[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} NEWS: Yugoslav Troops Will Return to Kosovo by Year's End (AFP, Oct 11, 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=208452&section=Kosovo

Yugoslav Troops Will Return to Kosovo by Year's End

BELGRADE, Oct 11, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Yugoslav troops will
return to Kosovo by the end of the year, a senior figure in new
President Vojislav Kostunica Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) party
says in an interview published here Wednesday.
     "Between now and the end of the year we will return 1,200 of our
(Serb) police and our Yugoslav soldiers to the border with Albania,"
Zoran Djindjic, a senior figure in the DOS, told the daily Vecernje
Novosti.
     Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and borders Albania,
is currently under UN administration following NATO intervention and
attacks on Serb targets last year.
     Although officially part of Yugoslavia, the exodus of almost all
Serbs from Kosovo and the rise of ethnic Albanian calls for independence
leave its long-term fate in doubt.
     UN Security Council resolution 1244 declares that Kosovo will
remain a part of federal Yugoslavia.
     The resolution, oft cited by Belgrade leaders, also maps out the
eventual return of Serb police and Yugoslav troops to the area, although
no deadline is given.
     Djindjic added that "a few days ago" he had spoken on the phone to
the UN administrator in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner.
     "He asked to come to Belgrade to discuss the return of our police
to Kosovo. As soon as we have formed a federal government, we will send
a delegation to Brussels and Washington and demand that resolution 1244
be honoured," said Djindjic.
     "We can see absolutely no reason for any kind of delay," he added.
     On Tuesday, Kostunica denied a report that he had invited Kouchner
for talks in Belgrade.
     Speaking earlier Tuesday in Macedonia, Kouchner urged the
international community not to rush to resolve the status of Kosovo
following the ouster of ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.
     "Let's go step by step. At the moment we need (Serbian and ethnic
Albanian) communities to accept to coexist and after that to accept,
step by step, a sort of comprehension," Kouchner told journalists after
talks with top Macedonian officials.
     Kouchner stressed that the Kosovo problem should be solved within
the region as the whole, but said he believed it was "too early to talk
about the solution for Kosovo".
     Kouchner, however, ruled out the idea of an independent Kosovo.
     According to UN resolution 1244 "Kosovo remains the part of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," he stressed.
     "I will go to Belgrade to discuss with (new Yugoslav President
Vojislav) Kostunica if he invites me," Kouchner said adding that "there
were some misunderstanding about that."
     He said he hoped to establish a "significant dialogue" with the new
Yugoslav government.

 ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)


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