By Renate Flottau and Hans Hoyng
While the international community is trying to lastingly pacify the crisis province of Kosovo, the hostile ethnic groups of Serbs and Albanians refuse to cooperate. Even the upcoming election cannot make them give up their dreams. (passage omitted)
In the previous
parliamentary election in 2001 the party of Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova won
45.6 percent and formed the government together with the parties of former
guerilla fighters Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj. Even though the government
is torn by strife and several dignitaries from Rugova's party were assassinated,
even members who turned from old fighters into obviously high-wage earning
business magnates in dubious ways have always agreed on one thing: Kosovo must
become independent, that is, Albanian. The 22 Serbian people's representatives
gave the Parliament multiethnic legitimization, but they did not have nay
influence.
And this will hardly change. (passage omitted)
US presidential candidate John Kerry has promised self-determination to the Kosovo Albanians; former US mediator Richard Holbrooke made an even more unambiguous statement: Kosovo will be independent -- with or without Serbia's approval. However, in Germany, too, such views seem to become more popular. Before Defense Minister Struck's latest trip to Kosovo, Berlin diplomats said "that reintegration in Serbia cannot be a solution." Former KFOR (Kosovo Force) commander Klaus Reinhardt fears a new war in this case.
For Col Erhard Buehler, the new commander of the German KFOR troops in Pristina, this would be a horror scenario. Everybody realizes, Buehler says, that one cannot afford any more unrest like the one in March. At that time, 19 people were killed, more than 900 injured, and Serb churches as well as monasteries were destroyed in the riots.
Therefore, the 3,300 soldiers in the German contingent are more intensively trained for "operations against demonstrators." Pepper spray arrived recently, curfews for 10 towns have been prepared for the "emergency." Then 1,200 soldiers could be in Prizren within 15 minutes.
Col Buehler does not have any illusions: "The situation is unpredictable, and since the ethnic conflicts have not been settled, the potential for unrest has not disappeared. The former UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) still has gigantic arms depots in Kosovo; all UNMIK (UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) campaigns to collect the weapons have been a flop." (passage omitted)
SOURCE: Der Spiegel, Hamburg, in German, 18 Oct 04 pp 134-137
FBIS Document Number: FBIS-WEU-2004-1018 [FBIS Headline: German KFOR Commander Says Former UCK Still Has 'Gigantic Arms Depots' in Kosovo]
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