http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=213312&section=Kosovo

U.S. Balkans Troubleshooter in Kosovo before Vote

PRISTINA, Oct 25, 2000 -- (Reuters) Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to
the UN and Balkans peace architect, arrived in Kosovo on Tuesday to assess
pending post-war elections and the impact of Yugoslavia's democratic revolution.

Kosovans will vote in municipal elections on Saturday, 16 months after
NATO-backed UN authorities replaced brutal Yugoslav Serb rule and three
weeks after a street uprising toppled autocratic President Slobodan Milosevic.

"We look forward to successful elections this week and I hope this will be
followed early next year with elections throughout Kosovo, at the overall
level,"
said Holbrooke, alluding to parliamentary elections for Kosovo.

He spoke briefly to reporters before beginning talks with Kosovo's UN mission
chief, Bernard Kouchner, to be followed by meetings with leaders of Kosovo's
Albanian majority and a trip to the ethnically polarized city of Mitrovica on
Wednesday.

"And I want to hear from Doctor Kouchner about the effect in Kosovo of the
historic events in Belgrade," said Holbrooke, a veteran U.S. diplomat renowned
for his piledriving negotiating skill and zest for publicity. He planned a news
conference later.

Holbrooke knocked reluctant Serb, Muslim and Croat heads together in 1995 to
produce peace in Bosnia and brokered a Kosovo truce in 1998 between
Milosevic's rampaging forces and Albanian separatist guerrillas that later
collapsed.

New Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has vowed to build a democracy with
equal rights for all ethnic groups but has reaffirmed Belgrade's opposition to
independence for Kosovo.

KOSTUNICA DOES NOT IMPRESS ALBANIANS

Ethnic Albanian leaders have dismissed Kostunica's election as immaterial to
their
statehood agenda, saying he is less menacing than Milosevic but still a
nationalist
who consorted with Serb paramilitaries during a Kosovo visit in 1998.

Kosovo Albanians swear they will never be part of Yugoslavia again, but fear
Western powers will twist their arms to give up independence now that democracy
has bloomed in Belgrade.

Kosovo was a directly-ruled province of Serbia but the UN Security resolution
authorizing international rule there states it is part of federal Yugoslavia
while
leaving its final status unclear.

Holbrooke is on familiar terms with feud-ridden Kosovo Albanian politicians,
particularly pre-war pacifist leader Ibrahim Rugova and former guerrilla chief
Hashim Thaci, now heading the two biggest parties vying for post-war dominance.

Holbrooke knew the ousted hard-line nationalist Serb elite of Yugoslavia well
through many rounds of bruising negotiations with Milosevic and his acolytes in
Belgrade and in Bosnia.

But many Serbs now revile Holbrooke as someone seen to have played a crucial
role in bringing down NATO bombs on Yugoslavia last year that drove Serbian
forces out of Kosovo.

For the same reason, he is idolized by ethnic Albanians who were expelled en
masse, their villages burned and relatives and friends murdered in Milosevic's
indiscriminate anti-rebel purge.

Consequently, NATO peacekeeping troops and UN police planned intense
security precautions for Holbrooke's visit on Wednesday to Mitrovica, split
since
the war into hostile ethnic Albanian and Serb-dominated sectors.

He was expected to meet leaders of both communities, probably at UN
headquarters on the Albanian south side of town, and to hold another news
conference. It was not known if he would try to visit the Serb north.

French-led NATO troops are now deployed in force along the demarcating Ibar
River to prevent a recurrence of ethnic riots that almost flamed out of control
in
Mitrovica during Kosovo's first year as a UN protectorate.