[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Kostunica wants revision of Kosova peace agreements (RFE/RL, 14 Feb 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/7f734b2f13f39af5c12569f3005c11ed?OpenDocument

Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Date: 14 Feb 2001

Kostunica wants revision of Kosova peace agreements

Speaking at a Belgrade press conference on 13 February, Yugoslav
President Vojislav Kostunica again called for a revision of the 1999
Kumanovo agreements that ended the Kosova conflict and established a
demilitarized zone on southwest Serbia's border with Kosova (see "RFE/RL
Balkan Report," 6 February 2001). He said that "if NATO and KFOR are
still reluctant about abolishing the buffer zone, we can narrow [the
zone in Serbia] and extend it across the boundary into Kosovo and have
joint patrols there by KFOR and our army," Reuters reported. He added
that Yugoslav officers could be stationed at the U.S. Camp Bondsteel
base in Kosova. Kostunica apparently did not mention how he would deal
with the ethnic Albanians, who do not trust Belgrade and its security
forces. It was in their interest that the zone was set up in the first
place. In December, Predrag Simic, who is Kostunica's foreign policy
adviser, wrote two articles in the weekly "NIN" in which he outlined
plans for how Belgrade could re-establish its authority in Kosova with
the cooperation of the international community. PM 

NATO SKEPTICAL OF KOSTUNICA'S PROPOSAL 

In Brussels, unnamed NATO officials told Reuters on 13 February that it
is "highly unlikely" that the Atlantic alliance will agree to joint
patrols with the Yugoslav military. The sources noted that there is no
mention of joint patrols in their copies of Belgrade's proposed plan for
easing tensions in the Presevo valley (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13
February 2001). In Prishtina, unnamed KFOR sources said that they fear
that Belgrade will use any changes in the Kumanovo agreements and the
status of the zone to launch a fresh crackdown on local ethnic Albanians
(see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 13 February 2001). Albanian leaders in
Kosova have repeatedly made it clear that any return of Serbian forces
to the province is unacceptable following the repression and ethnic
cleansing of 1998-1999. PM 

KOSTUNICA RULES OUT TALKS WITH ALBANIAN 'TERRORISTS' 

The Yugoslav president also said at his Belgrade press conference on 13
February that "we are not going to have talks [or] negotiations with
terrorists," in an apparent reference to the Liberation Army of Presevo,
Medvedja, and Bujanovac (UCPMB), Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 13 February 2001). He argued that the guerrillas were wrong
to take up arms "when everything has changed in this country, in the
region." The fighters therefore cannot be regarded as "legitimate"
representatives of the local Albanians, he added (see "RFE/RL Balkan
Report," 13 February 2001). Kostunica nonetheless held open the
possibility of talks involving the UCPMB's "political representatives -
as has been done in Northern Ireland," by which he presumably meant Sinn
Fein's role as a stand-in for the IRA. PM 

© 2000 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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