Kosovo "unfashionable" for donors?

PRISTINA, Thursday - The head of the UN civilian mission in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, said yesterday that Kosovo was falling out of fashion with the international community and complained that he had been abandoned in the province without funds. Kouchner told media that he had zero Deutschmarks in the Kosovo budget for 2000 and was unable to pay salaries in hospitals, schools and the legal system. The current situation would serve no one except possibly Slobodan Milosevic, said Kouchner, adding that the international community considered the matter of Kosovo solve, as there was no longer a major crisis.

Members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee today expressed impatience with the resumption of the US military role in Kosovo, accusing Europe of shirking its responsibilities. NATO European Commander Wesley Clark told the committee that US troops often have to take over European positions because they have not met the agreed quota on personnel for the international police force. Clark said that there are less than 2,000 of a planned 4, 718 police troops in Kosovo and that a fifth of those are Americans.

The Commissioner of UN police in Kosovo, Sven Fredericksen, said in New York last night that if signatory countries of the UN Security Resolution did not send more police troops, the peace mission could fail.

Source: B92

---

Back to Archive | Back to Kosov@ Crisis 1999