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Yugoslav President Asks for Amendment to Kosovo Agreement
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Tuesday, December 19, called for an amendment to the military agreement on Kosovo so as to give Yugoslav forces more power in the buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.
It is unrealistic to think the agreement can be changed completely, since this could destabilize the situation, Kostunica said, but it can be amended, or parts of it can be interpreted in a different way.
Yugoslavia's goal is to eliminate insecurity and anxiety from the buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, and to have the zone patrolled by the Serbian police to secure law and order, Kostunica said at his first regular press briefing.
In recent weeks, tension has been mounting in areas near the buffer zone due to a string of attacks against Serbian police and civilians by armed ethnic Albanians.
Kostunica said that to remove the terrorists from the buffer zone cannot be done unilaterally through the presence or intervention of international forces and the Kosovo Force (KFOR).
"One way to resolve the problem would be to reduce the buffer zone from five kilometers to one or two kilometers."
Under the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, the buffer zone can be protected only by local police equipped with light arms.
Kostunica also blamed some non-governmental organizations for indirectly giving legitimacy to the concept of an independent Kosovo.
"The terrorists feel encouraged by this position adopted by non- governmental organizations. Indirect support for an independent Kosovo is in fact support for those striving with violence to gain independence for Kosovo and for enlarging the concept of Kosovo to include southern Serbia and the buffer zone."
Kosovo is an autonomous province of the Republic of Serbia, which, together with the Republic of Montenegro, forms the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia and NATO signed a military agreement on June 9, 1999, on the withdrawal of Serbian troops from Kosovo. The document provides "a clear legal base" for the deployment of the NATO-led KFOR. The agreement was reached after NATO's 11-week massive air strikes against Yugoslavia.
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