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Belgrade Blames KFOR for Growing Terrorism in Buffer Zone
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Monday, December 18, repeated blames on the NATO-led KFOR international peacekeeping forces for the deteriorating security situation in the southern part of Yugoslavia's Serbian republic.
After meeting Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Kostunica told reporters that the KFOR should bear primary responsibility for increasingly rampant terrorist activities by ethnic Albanian extremists in the demilitarized zone separating Kosovo province and Serbia proper.
He underscored that the situation in southern Serbia is worse than ever because the KFOR permits the entry of well-equipped ethnic Albanian extremists into the buffer zone from the UN-controlled Kosovo province in southwestern Serbia.
In recent weeks, tension has been mounting in areas near the zone due to a string of attacks against Serbian police and civilians by armed ethnic Albanians. The zone was set up in line with a military technical agreement signed between Yugoslavia and NATO in 1999.
Belgrade is now waiting for a response from the UN Security Council after demanding last week a UN deadline for the Albanian militants to leave the zone.
Kosovo has been under the administration of the United Nations Special Mission (UNMIK) since June last year when NATO troops entered the province on the heels of withdrawing Yugoslav troops.
At the news conference, Kostunica also touched upon a request by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for the former Yugoslavia to extradite former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. Kostunica, who defeated Milosevic in October, reiterated that extraditing Milosevic is not a priority of his government.
Instead, Kostunica stressed, his pressing task is to address the Kosovo issue, the situation in southern Serbia, and Serbia's relations with Yugoslavia's other republic, Montenegro.
After Kostunica took office in early October, Western countries called for him to turn over Milosevic to the tribunal that indicted the former Yugoslav leader for war crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. The charges were firmly denied by Milosevic.
On the same occasion, Stoltenberg said he was satisfied that Yugoslavia is moving rapidly to take part in international affairs. During the past two months, Yugoslavia has restored diplomatic relations with the United States and three other NATO member countries, and normalized relations with all the breakaway republics of the former Yugoslavia.
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