PRISTINA, June 5 (Hina) - The commander of international peace troops in Kosovo, Norwegian General Thorstein Skiaker, was quoted by the radio station "Free Europe" broadcast in the Albanian language as saying that no 'Berlin Wall'
would be built in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica. The Pristina daily in the Albanian language "Koha Ditore" has recently reported that there are plans for the construction of four walls with barbed wire which should partition Kosovska Mitrovica into South Mitrovica populated by Albanians and North Mitrovica populated by Serbs. According to the daily, four walls high 2.5 metres and long 35 metres should be built in the southern part of the town near a bridge across the Ibar River. The project was, the paper alleged, proposed by a former commander of KFOR multi-national brigade in Sector North, French General Alain Tartinville. Skiaker said on Monday that there was a pl
PRISTINA, June 5 (Hina) - The commander of international peace
troops in Kosovo, Norwegian General Thorstein Skiaker, was quoted
by the radio station "Free Europe" broadcast in the Albanian
language as saying that no 'Berlin Wall' would be built in the town
of Kosovska Mitrovica.
The Pristina daily in the Albanian language "Koha Ditore" has
recently reported that there are plans for the construction of four
walls with barbed wire which should partition Kosovska Mitrovica
into South Mitrovica populated by Albanians and North Mitrovica
populated by Serbs. According to the daily, four walls high 2.5
metres and long 35 metres should be built in the southern part of the
town near a bridge across the Ibar River. The project was, the paper
alleged, proposed by a former commander of KFOR multi-national
brigade in Sector North, French General Alain Tartinville.
Skiaker said on Monday that there was a plan for building some walls
in order to improve the image of the surroundings and to enhance the
control of people crossing. But, we are not going to build a Berlin
Wall, I assure you, the Norwegian general said.
He voiced satisfaction with the peaceful return of Yugoslav forces
in the safety buffer zone, and assessed that the operation of their
come-back to the last sector Bravo had been proceeded better than
expected.
Undoubtedly, an important role for the success of this operation
was played by the (ethnic Albanian) liberation army of Presevo,
Bujanovac and Medvedja that cooperated in the process and helped
complete demilitarisation, the general said.
Now when I see that the Serb forces have returned without any
incident, I think it gives good chances for brighter future in
Kosovo, he added.
Skiaker said that for one month how long he had been at the helm of
KFOR he could have no evidence about a larger number of illegal
crossings of the border between Kosovo and Macedonia.
All who know the frontier are aware how difficult the ground is to be
supervised in its entirety, Skiaker said in his interview.
(hina) ms