Politika, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
December 25, 2000

STATEMENT OF OLIVER IVANOVIC, MEMBER OF THE SERBIAN
GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR KOSMET

KFOR must be reorganized

"Kosmet will never be a republic, and a high degree of autonomy should
satisfy all aspirations of the Albanians, said Oliver Ivanovic"

Jagodina, December 24 (Beta) - KFOR must be reorganized and a part of
that reorganization should also include a change of the security zone at
the line of demarcation, Oliver Ivanovic, a member of the Serbian
government Commission for Kosmet, stated for the Jagodina television
program "Palma Plus".

"I expect KFOR to be more radical in its approach toward Albanians who
are violating international agreements. I also think that KFOR and the
Yugoslav Army must be in constant contact in the capacity of good
collaborators who provide security for people on both side of the line
of demarcation," said Ivanovic.

The Albanian invasion of the Bujanovac and Presevo region is
fundamentally connected with imposing upon the international community
the problem of coexistence of Serbs and Albanians in the Pcinj district
in order to deflect attention from the problems in Kosovo and Metohija,
believes Ivanovic, and adds that in this manner they wish to impose the
dilemma whether the northern part of Kosovo and Metohija, which they do
not control, will be exchanged for a part of southern Serbia.

This also represented a test for the new federal government in Belgrade
because they thought that the use of the army and police would involve a
far more radical response and that the new government would thus bring
into question everything it had achieved during the past two months on
the international plan, said Ivanovic.

Commenting on the statement of UN secretary general Kofi Annan regarding
the confederalization of Yugoslavia, Ivanovic said: "Kosmet will never
be a republic. A high degree of autonomy should
satisfy all aspirations of the Albanians. The essence is to improve the
status of Albanians in Serbia and Yugoslavia, not to proclaim Kosmet a
republic."

Translated by S. Lazovic (Dec. 25, 2000)