Greek president slams international leaders' 'forgotten promises' over Kosovo

Greek president slams international leaders' 'forgotten promises' over Kosovo
Associated Press Worldstream - April 11, 2006 Tuesday 2:37 PM GMT

ATHENS Greece - Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Tuesday accused the international community of broken promises over Kosovo, saying little had been done to improve life in the province of Serbia.

"The better life which the international community promised after the bombing in 1999 was lost in the bureaucratic labyrinth of economic and humanitarian aid," Papoulias said, adding that world leaders "quickly forgot their responsibilities and promises."

Kosovo, still formally part of Serbia-Montenegro, has been under U.N. administrative rule since mid-1999, when a NATO air war halted Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

"Organized crime and the black economy were the real winners of the war," said Papoulias, a former foreign minister who was elected president by parliament for a five-year term in 2005.

Papoulias was speaking at the University of Macedonia in the northern port city of Thessaloniki.