Serbian Kosovo negotiating team member criticizes new UNMIK chief
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - August 15, 2006 Tuesday

Text of report by Serbian news agency Beta

Belgrade, 14 August: Marko Jaksic, a member of the Belgrade negotiating team for the status of Kosovo, today said that the Serbs in Kosovo were not very happy to hear that German diplomat Joachim Ruecker had been appointed new UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief.

"We can only hope that the situation and the attitude towards the Serbs in Kosovo will not be as bleak as so far, but we know from experience that UNMIK chiefs have been figureheads and that the most important moves have been made from the shadow by their deputies, who have always and regularly been Americans," Jaksic told the Beta news agency.

Jaksic, who is chairman of the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo, accused Ruecker of being the "architect of the plundering privatization" in Kosovo and "one of the people guilty of the fact that Serbs in Kosovo do not have electricity."

"Having that in mind, we are afraid that Ruecker might even be worse than Soren Jessen Petersen as far as the position of the Serb community in Kosovo is concerned," Jaksic said.

The other members of the Belgrade negotiating team and representatives of the Serbian government who were contacted by Beta did not wish to comment on the appointment of Ruecker as UNMIK chief and said that they would most likely do so tomorrow.

Representatives of Albanian political parties in Kosovo described Ruecker as the "right man in the right place."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier today appointed Ruecker UNMIK chief and informed the UN Security Council that Ruecker would take over as of 1 September, 2006.

Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1848 gmt 14 Aug 06

Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
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