Subject: Djindjic gives KFOR 20 days to address frontier violence
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 10:00:16 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BERLIN, Dec 29 (AFP) - Serbia's future prime minister Zoran
Djindjic has given the NATO-led Kosovo force (KFOR) 20 days to
stabilize the situation between in southern Serbia where
ethnic-Albanian rebels are battling Serb police, a German magazine
reported Friday.
Djindjic told Der Spiegel in an interview to appear in its
Saturday edition that KFOR must stop the guerilla violence at the
frontier between UN-administered Kosovo and the rest of Serbia,
which he said was a dangerous threat to stability in the region.
"We are giving the KFOR peacekeeping troops in Kosovo a maximum
of 20 days to stabilize the situation at the border," he was quoted
as saying.
"If there prove to be indications of an Albanian offensive,
however, our police will intervene immediately."
Albanian guerrilla groups, fighting under the banner of the
Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), are
calling for the three towns in whose name they claim to fight to be
integrated into a future independent Kosovo.
"We must to prevent Albanians reaching Presevo in the initial
phase and endangering 50,000 civilians there. The aim of this group
is to separate Serbia from Macedonia and Greece," Djindjic said.
Djindjic also warned that an independent Kosovo would
destabilize the region, because the Serbian parts of Mitrovica and
northern Kosovo would not accept a separate state.
The conflict would lead to a split in Macedonia and a crisis
between Greece, Albania, Serbia and the remainder of Macedonia, he
warned.
He called for Kosovo to remain an international protectorate for
at least another five years "to show Albanians that cooperation with
Serbia is in their interest."
Djindjic reiterated his opposition to the plans of Montenegro's
President Milo Djukanovic to hold a referendum on independence,
saying the creation of an independent states would violate the
standards of the European Union which Yugoslavia hopes to join in
"seven to eight years".
On domestic reforms, Djindjic pledged to stoke the fight against
corruption with tougher penalties and to lower barriers to foreign
investment.
Referring to reports that an ally of former Yugoslav leader
Slobodan Milosevic had prepared exile for him in Cuba and
accusations against him of corruption, Djindjic said the country
would probably not fight to keep him in Yugoslavia.
"We don't need to do everything we can to detain him, that is
not our priority," he said. "But before he goes, I would ask him for
an explanation about his bank accounts."