[ALBSA-Info] Djindjic calls for isolation of Kosovo guerrillas

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Djindjic calls for isolation of Kosovo guerrillas

  
BERLIN, March 9 (Reuters) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic urged NATO 
and democratic states on Friday to isolate ethnic Albanian guerrillas in 
Kosovo to help resolve the crisis on the Kosovo-Macedonia border. 

Speaking to journalists after meeting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and 
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Djindjic said efforts to find a peaceful 
end to the crisis were hampered because officials in democratic states "at 
the highest levels" were in contact with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian guerrillas. 

"The NATO strategists have to make a clear decision about who is the problem 
here and who is the solution," Djindjic said. "I believe the moderates in 
Serbia and the moderate Albanians are the solution and the extremists are the 
problem." 

"We have cut ourselves off from the extremists and want them to be 
marginalised," he added. 

He said that NATO had to develop a security concept for the entire region and 
international organisations had not succeeded in taking the weapons out of 
the hands of civilians. 

Macedonia, one third of whose population is ethnic Albanian, raised the alarm 
internationally two weeks ago after a clash between its security forces and 
ethnic Albanian gunmen. 

The gunmen had occupied Tanusevci on the border with majority Albanian 
Kosovo, which has been controlled by NATO-led troops and U.N. officials since 
1999. 

Djindjic said that the conflict had its roots in the 1999 Kosovo war, which 
he said was now being exported. 

"We have to try to resolve not only the consequences but the causes as well," 
he said. 

"The cause is that the extremist political forces in Kosovo are legal and 
received at the highest levels by democratic states. Their activists are, 
meanwhile, killing people and planting bombs. This has to be explained 
internationally."