Holbrooke stressed the importance of Russian troops in KFOR

Richard Holbrooke, on the first Balkan tour after being made U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Sunday urged a swift end to a dispute in which Kosovo Albanians have barred Russian peacekeepers from their town for a week. He stressed the importance of Russia's role in the international force in Kosovo. "The Russians are an important part of the process here. We work closely with them here and in the United Nations," said Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-1995 Bosnia war. "They were an important part of the process that ended the war and they have a legitimate role here," he said.

Holbrooke is supposed to stay in Kosovo for three days, and afterwards visit Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He haven't spoke to the press since he arrived to Kosovo from Skopje and the mystery around his sudden arrival to the region leads to a conclusion that he's gathering information that could be useful in redefining the US policy on Kosovo.

Source: Free Serbia

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