PRISTINA/BELGRADE, Feb 2 (Hina) - Serbia's new strategy wishes to divide Kosovo along ethnic lines and the first step would be to territorially unite Kosovo's Serb enclaves on the Bosnian model, Albanian officials said on Sunday
commenting on an initiative by Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
PRISTINA/BELGRADE, Feb 2 (Hina) - Serbia's new strategy wishes to
divide Kosovo along ethnic lines and the first step would be to
territorially unite Kosovo's Serb enclaves on the Bosnian model,
Albanian officials said on Sunday commenting on an initiative by
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. #L#
Djindjic said yesterday he would contact competent international
institutions to seek a consistent implementation of the U.N.'s
Resolution 1244 for Kosovo. He also hoped Yugoslav troops would
return to Kosovo in the coming months.
Djindjic said powers pertaining to security should not be
transferred to local authorities in Kosovo without Belgrade's
consent. He announced Serbia's government would write to the United
Nations Security Council and the prime ministers of the U.S. and
Europe's countries, seeking that the Yugoslav army and police be
enabled to return to Kosovo's Serb-populated areas.
Kosovo's Albanians also slammed a letter Djindjic wrote to Admiral
Gregory Jonston, NATO's commander for Southeast Europe, seeking
the return of a certain number of Serb soldiers and police.
Tony Adams, spokesman for NATO's peacekeepers in Kosovo (KFOR), has
said there is no plan to diminish U.S. troops there or need for Serb
troops to return. There is no need either for any other army but KFOR
to be active in Kosovo, he has said.
The return of Serb soldiers would destabilise Kosovo and the entire
region, Ramadan Avdiu, advisor to Kosovo's prime minister, said
today.
Mahmut Bakalli, a deputy for the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
in Kosovo's parliament, said the latest statements by officials
from Belgrade clashed with efforts to establish lasting peace and
stability.
The new Serbian strategy for Kosovo is obviously a Serbian
illusion, said Muhamet Hamiti, spokesman for Kosovo's president.
On the other hand, Rada Trajkovic, the Serb coalition Povratak's
representative in the Kosovo parliament, maintains the initiative
to return Serb troops is in line with Resolution 1244 and that
Djindjic's request is valid.
(hina) ha