New Kosova Report

NATO blames Serb leaders for border blazes

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

NATO

PRISHTINË - The commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force, or KFOR, Wednesday held minority Serb leaders in northern Kosovo responsible for Tuesday's torching of two border crossings with Serbia.

"Some local leaders took a huge responsibility yesterday," French General Xavier Bout de Marnhac told reporters. "The leaders should think deeply of their responsibility when they trigger this type of demonstration."

While not naming names, De Marnhac said the ringleaders could be discerned by watching video images of the incident on Serbian television.

"You will know what I am talking about," he said.

The border crossings at Banja and Jarinje remained sealed Wednesday after at least 1,000 Serbs from Kosovo and Serbia ransacked and torched both sites, two days after Kosovo's declaration of independence.

In statements Tuesday, KFOR and the U.N. mission that has administered Kosovo since 1999 said the two border crossings would remain closed for 24 hours. Others, including those into Albania and Macedonia, stayed open.

"Kosovo is not closed," said Joachim Ruecker, the German head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, which still oversees Kosovo's borders.

"Other (border crossing) gates are not closed," he said. "We intend to open ( the crossings at Banja and Jarinje) and go back to normal."

De Marnhac made his remarks after a meeting in Kosovo's capital Pristina with Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who sought to play down the most serious violence incident since independence.

"The incident was isolated and without any impact vis-a-vis the reality in Kosovo, where the citizens are continuing their normal life," said Thaci, whose newly founded state is dominated by ethnic Albanians.

De Marnhac, with 17,000 troop from more than 30 countries under his command, said it wasn't his intention to deploy more troops to the two crossing points, over and above the ones rushed there Tuesday.

"I just want everybody to be fully aware of my determination to maintain and restore a safe and secure environment everywhere in Kosovo," he said. "Nobody should have any doubts about that determination."

In a statement, Kosovo police said Wednesday that between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, "no incidents were recorded that would be interesting for the public."

(c) AFP