NATO BACKS NEW SECURITY FORCE FOR KOSOVO

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.06.2008 15:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ NATO announced Thursday that it was ready to back
the launch of a new Kosovo domestic security force, in a move likely
to exacerbate tensions with Serbia and Russia.

The announcement, at a meeting of NATO defense ministers, fits with
United Nations plans to restructure the nine-year UNMIK mission in
Kosovo, as the territory prepares to adopt a new constitution this
weekend.

Kosovo has been run by the UN since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign
ended a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists, but from Sunday
some of its responsibilities will be handed over to the European Union.

"NATO will supervise the standing down of the KPC (Kosovo Protection
Corps) and the standing up of a civilian-controlled Kosovo security
force," chief spokesman James Appathurai told reporters in Brussels.

He said it "will be a new, professional and multi-ethnic force which
will be lightly armed and will possess no heavy weapons." Its first
tasks, he said, would be crisis response, explosives disposal and
civil protection.

NATO has been planning the move for several months, and an alliance
diplomat has said that KFOR could move quickly to get the 2,500-strong
force up and running.

"We’re more or less ready to do that," he said, the AFP reports.

NATO leads the KFOR contingent of 16,000 peacekeepers in Kosovo,
and the ministers debated exactly how it will function as UNMIK’s
duties evolve in the days ahead, with some tasks falling to the EU.

Above all, NATO does not want to be left doing UN police duties.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress