http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=214600&section=Kosovo

UN Kosovo Mission to Pay Some Serb Electricity Debt

BELGRADE, Oct 28, 2000 -- (Reuters) Serbian power monopoly
Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) said on Friday the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
had offered to repay DEM 2 million (USD 860,000) of a total debt of USD 19
million for power consumed.

"UNMIK offered to repay DEM 2 million, which will apparently be their last
payment in the course of this year," Beta news agency quoted unnamed EPS
sources as saying.

The EPS has continued to provide electricity to Kosovo, still legally part of
Yugoslavia, even after the UN mission and NATO-led peacekeepers took de
facto control of the province following last year's NATO bombing campaign.

Yugoslav authorities said last week they hoped to collect the entire debt from
the
peacekeeping mission with the help of some European countries, which would step
in to settle the arrears because UNMIK disposed of limited budget sources.

According to an EPS source quoted by Beta, the UNMIK delegation said it could
provide no firm guarantees for new payments.

UNMIK's initial total debt of USD 19.8 referred to some 560 million
Kilowatt-hours of electricity supplied to the Kosovo system between June 1999
and June this year. So far, the mission has paid back USD 1 million to EPS.

The original deal between EPS and UNMIK envisaged repayment of the
electricity debt over a period of 18 months, Dragan Vignjevic, EPS's chief
dispatcher, told reporters on Thursday.

He said that Kosovo and UNMIK were using electricity from Serbia's power grid
without any authorization, although Serbia itself was facing serious shortages.

"Kosovo's power plants can produce enough electricity for the province. But
their
current production is only 25 percent of their output during the time when the
plants were operated by EPS. They also import from Bulgaria," Vignjevic said.

Almost half of Serbia was left without electricity last Wednesday after a
failure of
four units at the largest power generating plant near Belgrade, officials of the
state-run EPS power company said.

The situation was likely to remain difficult until November 1, when Serbia's
neighbors were expected to start exporting.

EPS launched power cuts throughout Serbia last Friday to try to protect its
system. Households are without electricity up to nine hours a day.