Serbia wants army, police back in Kosovo

Serbia wants army, police back in Kosovo
Agence France Presse (English) - August 17, 2007 Friday 1:20 PM GMT

BELGRADE, Aug 17 2007 - Serbia wants to send soldiers and policemen back to Kosovo, a top official said Friday, amid increased tensions over the future status of the UN-administered province.

"We believe the time has come for that," Aleksandar Simic, an adviser of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, told the Beta news agency.

The UN Security Council resolution which ended the Kosovo conflict between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatists, included an option that up to 1,000 Serbian policemen and soldiers could be sent back to the province to guard cultural and religious sites.

The option has never been taken up amid fears that it would exacerbate tensions.

In June 1999, Serbian armed forces were driven out of the province following a NATO bombing campaign that ended their crackdown against Albanian separatists in the province.

While technically remaining a Serbian province, Kosovo has been run by a UN mission ever since, with some 16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers deployed there.

Under the recent proposals of UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari -- rejected by both Serbia and Russia, but supported by the United States -- Kosovo would be granted supervised independence.

Simic joined a number of Serbian ministers in accusing the United States of influence peddling in the region.

"If they (the US) gave up a creation of a NATO state in the Balkans, real negotiations would be possible" on Kosovo's future status, Simic said.

The international troika of the United States, the European Union and Russia has launched a new round of negotiations on Kosovo following Moscow's rejection of the Ahtisaari plan.

The talks are expected to resume on August 30 in Vienna.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who comprise 90 percent of the 1.8 million population, want nothing but independence, while Belgrade balks at anything more than a high degree of autonomy.