UN Wire

November 27, 2000

KOSOVO: Kostunica Appeals For UN, NATO Help

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said today he was seeking urgent UN and NATO assistance in re-establishing peace and security in the three-mile wide border zone between Kosovo and Serbia. Yesterday, Yugoslavia sent tanks and troops near the border in an effort to quell rising violence.

At a Vienna meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe today, Kostunica accused ethnic Albanian gunmen of crossing the demilitarized border and killing minority Serbs in the Presevo Valley region in an act of ethnic cleansing (Reuters/MSNBC.com, 27 Nov). The remarks came as Yugoslavia formally joined the influential security body (Associated Press/ABCNews.com, 27 Nov).

"The violence is spilling over into the south of Serbia (where) Albanian terrorists have now entrenched themselves," he said. "They intimidate both the Serbs and the Albanians" (Reuters/MSNBC.com, 27 Nov).

Yesterday, the Yugoslav army sent tanks and reinforcements near the border between Kosovo and Serbia (New York Times, 27 Nov).

As stipulated by last year's military and technical agreement between NATO and Belgrade, Serbia can only deploy lightly armed police in the border zone, leaving the area open to attacks from heavily armed Albanian groups (Reuters/MSNBC.com, 27 Nov).

Kostunica, however, in letters to the heads of NATO and the United Nations, called for a re-appraisal of the agreement's "serious ambiguity" (Reuters/Central Europe Online, 27 Nov). His government had earlier set a Monday afternoon deadline for NATO to rein in the Albanian forces or face a Yugoslav crackdown (New York Times, 27 Nov).

Kostunica Saturday called on Kosovo's moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova to sponsor talks with Serbs to foster lasting peace in the province. "For the lasting peace and stability of Kosovo, which has to remain a multinational environment, a crucial dialogue is necessary between the two greatest national communities -- the Albanian and the Serb community," Kostunica said (Reuters/Central Europe Online, 26 Nov).

The recent upsurge in violence along the Kosovo border has prompted a renewed refugee flight out of the southern areas of Serbia. Peter Deck, an official with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Kosovo, said that more than 2,000 people have fled Serbia since the recent crisis began (AP/CNN.com, 27 Nov).

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson last week tried to assure Kostunica that international peacekeepers were doing all they could to contain violence in Kosovo. NATO takes "very seriously its responsibility for creating a secure environment for all Kosovars," Robertson said in a letter to Kostunica. "I would urge you to ensure the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's security forces show restraint and fully abide by the military technical agreement provisions" (Reuters/Central Europe Online, 24 Nov).

Following last week's bombing of the house of Serbia's chief representative to Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, the head of the UN administration in the province, said the continued attacks in Kosovo threaten peace in the region. "As I have repeatedly said, Kosovo remains in crisis. The conflict between the two communities is not over," Kouchner said (Carlotta Gall, New York Times, 23 Nov).