Human Rights Watch says peacekeepers failed in Kosovo Deutsche Presse

Human Rights Watch says peacekeepers failed in Kosovo
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - July 26, 2004

Pristina - The NATO-led Kosovo Force and the United Nations international police failed catastrophically to protect minorities during widespread rioting in Kosovo in March, according to a Human Rights Watch report to be published Tuesday.

The group claims to have found that in numerous cases minorities targeted by violence were left entirely unprotected and at the mercy of the rioters.

For nearly 48 hours, the international peacekeepers and locally recruited Kosovo Police Service almost completely lost control as more than 30 major riots broke out across Kosovo, HRW said.

Nineteen people died and more than 900 were injured during the violence of March 17 and 18. About 550 homes and 27 Orthodox churches and monasteries were burned. Approximately 4,100 persons from minority communities were left homeless.

"This was the biggest security test for NATO and the United Nations in Kosovo since 1999, when minorities were forced from their homes as the international community looked on," Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division said in a statement.

"But they failed the test. In too many cases, NATO peacekeepers locked the gates to their bases and watched as Serb homes burned", she added.

The NATO-led force in Kosovo, KFOR, disagreed with the report.

"KFOR has not failed. KFOR has protected the minorities. We had 1,200 IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in our camps. Even now we have 100 IDPs", said KFOR spokesman, Colonel Jim Moran.

"Responsible for the riots are the people who conducted the riots, not KFOR", Moran said.

dpa lu jm - July 26, 2004, Monday - 16:30:19 Central European Time