Subject: French President visits divided Kosovo town amid fresh violence
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2000 8:04:34 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Nov 25 (AFP) - Amid a new
flare-up of violence in Kosovo, President Jacques Chirac of France
arrived Saturday in this flashpoint town to inspect French
peacekeepers and meet with area UN administrators.
"The confrontations have to be brought under control firmly
(and) without violence," Chirac told the 4,220 troops stationed
there on his first visit to Kosovo since the NATO bombing campaign
ended in June 1999.
In practice, that meant "creating conditions for ...
reconciliation between the men and women who hope to end this crisis
... (thus) restarting the Kososvo economy and (the) democratic
process," he said.
After leaving the ethnically divided town -- often the scene of
violent clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians -- Chirac was due
to hold talks with Bernard Kouchner, the French UN administrator for
Kosovo.
Chirac saluted Kouchner for his "personal engagement for success
in this process."
"I can't ignore that reconciliation between the communities is"
far from being successful, he added. "The fear and rancor
accumulated over (many) years are not erased within a few months."
Chirac's trip came after a new flare-up in violence this week
that saw ethnic Albanian guerrillas attack police in an adjacent
Serbian region and the assassination in Pristina of a top aide to
moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.
The French leader arrived from Athens, where he met with Greek
leaders after attending an EU-Balkan summit on Friday in Zagreb.
At the Zagreb summit, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
dubbed the Kosovo issue "the biggest problem in Europe," and warned
that attacks on Serbian police by Kosovo-based militants called into
question the future of last year's ceasefire agreement between NATO
and Belgrade.
On Friday, Belgrade gave NATO a three-day deadline to put an end
to the guerrilla attacks in a demilitarized buffer zone between
Kosovo and Serbia.
Saturday, during Chirac's visit, NATO said that the ethnic
Albanian guerrillas and Serb police had reached a ceasefire
agreement.