Ruecker reassures Kosovo Serbs

Ruecker reassures Kosovo Serbs

Several Serb students from Kosovo's enclaves told the BBC News website in Kosovska Mitrovica this week that their families were preparing to leave their homes and move to central Serbia in the event of Kosovo independence.

But Ruecker said the status proposal would "make absolutely sure that all the minorities, including the Kosovo Serbs, are not only going to be protected but are going to have a good future in Kosovo".

In the absence of a recent census, Serbs are believed to make up less than 10 percent of the population of Kosovo, which has been under international control since 1999, while legally remaining a province of Serbia.

As for the thousands of Serbs and other non-Albanians driven from their homes during the peaks of ethnic violence in 1999 and 2004, the head of UNMIK pointed to the work done by his body and the new Kosovo authorities to rebuild razed houses and prepare for the return.

"It is a very good thing that these houses were reconstructed," he said.

"People can come back now."

If people were not coming back, he added, it might be "because of political obstacles", rather than the specific situation on the ground. He predicted more returns once there was certainty about final status.

Asked if Serbs had not already de facto partitioned Kosovo along the River Ibar, which physically divides northern Mitrovica and its mainly ethnic Serb hinterland from the rest of Kosovo, UNMIK’s administrator said partition was unacceptable.

"I would not say that separation or mono-ethnicity is the solution - the contrary is true," he said.

"I think integration, co-existence, living together, multi-ethnicity is the future and I think the international community has made very clear that partition is not a solution for Kosovo's future."

EU, NATO study Kosovo security presence

European Union and NATO defense chiefs on Thursday mapped out plans for steering the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo through a tense period while ensuring a future exit strategy for their armies.

Two people were killed in clashes between police and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo this month and last week's bombing of three parked UN vehicles has underscored fears of unrest after the unveiling of plans for Kosovo's eventual independence, Reuters reports.

Yet the West is pushing ahead with a complex overhaul of its security presence in the territory.

The United Nations, that at present administers Kosovo, is due to hand over policing to the EU.

Several NATO members want to wind down the alliance's separate 16,000-plus peacekeeping mission there - though there is a consensus they must maintain forces over the next months of difficult diplomacy to resolve Kosovo's future.

"In the context of these negotiations it would be completely the wrong signal to start talking about troop reductions in Kosovo," German Foreign Minister Franz Josef Jung said before the meeting of EU defense ministers in the German city of Wiesbaden.

The exact size of the EU's police mission - tentatively set at 1,500 - has yet to be confirmed and will be one focus of the two-day talks.

Both the EU and NATO, which will be represented in Wiesbaden by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, want assurances from the United Nations that it will maintain its UNMIK police force on the ground until the Europeans are ready.

"It is important that we don't see gaps," de Hoop Scheffer told a security conference in Munich earlier this month.

"Because if there were gaps, that would immediately have consequences for KFOR," he added, reflecting fears among nations contributing to the KFOR operation that they would be left to deal with any outbreaks of violence.

EU planners are assessing how many police they will need to deploy with full executive powers to deal with possible riots in months ahead and to guard religious monuments that have previously been flashpoints for ethnic violence.

The current range stands at between 300 and 600 officers but the final number has not been agreed. The remaining personnel in the mission will be police trainers, judges, prosecutors and other rule of law officials.

Those nations with peacekeeping troops in Kosovo want the EU to ensure the police force will be as robust as possible.

The United States, whose troops make up around 10 percent of the KFOR mission, has said it is prepared to stay for a few months more but is keen to wind down its contingent to focus the energies of its stretched military on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Britain, also heavily engaged in those two countries, is also impatient to redeploy its troops from the Balkans once it is clear that security is under control.

The EU already on Tuesday went ahead with a long-planned move to reduce its peace force from the war-torn former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia, confirming its 6,000-strong force there would shrink to around 2,500 by June this year.