Serbia warns of humanitarian woes in Kosovo
Tue, 2 Aug 2011 17:13 GMT
Slovenia's KFOR soldiers stand on the road in the village of Rudare near the town of Zvecan August 2, 2011. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
(Adds Kosovo's PM)
* Serbia warns of possible humanitarian disaster in Kosovo
* EU continues mediation efforts
* Battalion of NATO troops to be sent in coming days
* Kosovo PM says Serbia trying to partition his country
By Adam Tanner and Fatos Bytyci
BELGRADE/PRISTINA, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Serbia accused Western forces on Tuesday of taking sides in a dispute between Kosovo's ethnic Serbs and Albanians and said their actions may lead to a "humanitarian catastrophe", but NATO denied the charge of bias.
NATO's KFOR peacekeeping force has barred trucks from entering northern Kosovo, dominated by ethnic Serbs, because it is not able to inspect their goods amid the rekindled tensions.
"Representatives of the international community (KFOR and EULEX) must remain neutral and should not take sides as they are doing now by refusing to talk with legitimate representatives of the Republic of Serbia and by blockading convoys of food, which may lead to a humanitarian catastrophe," Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said in a statement.
EULEX is the European Union's justice mission in Kosovo, which broke from Belgrade's rule in 2008.
A NATO spokeswoman rejected Cvetkovic's accusation of bias.
"NATO is not taking sides in this crisis. We remain...a neutral actor, providing a safe and secure environment as mandated to KFOR, to NATO by the U.N. Security Council resolution 1244," spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.
Earlier on Tuesday, NATO said it would send hundreds more troops to Kosovo following the outbreak of violence in the border area between ethnic Albanians and Serbs last week.
"The reason for the deployment is to relieve forces currently engaged in maintaining security," Romero said.
"It's not that the situation has gotten worse, but that KFOR troops have been very active and the commander considers the troops need to be relieved. The deployment should not be seen as a sign of escalation," she said.
TENSIONS
The latest crisis flared after Kosovo sent ethnic Albanian special police units to border posts previously staffed mostly by ethnic Serbs to enforce a ban on imports from Serbia.
NATO then sent its peacekeepers to quell three days of violence in which one ethnic Albanian policeman was shot dead and hardline Serbian nationalists set fire to one of the northern border crossings.
Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci vowed on Tuesday to resist what he said was an attempt by Belgrade to partition the north of his tiny country.
"There will not be de jure or de facto partition in Kosovo," he said, adding that changing borders would create complications for the whole Balkan region.
Thaci said his government was ready to help ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo in the event of food shortages.
With local Serbs still blocking main roads to border posts, the European Union remains heavily engaged in seeking to ease tensions, though Serbia expressed concern of being excluded.
After meeting Serb officials in Serbia, EU mediator Robert Cooper arrived in Kosovo on Tuesday to meet ethnic Albanian leaders and urge them to talk with Belgrade.
"We had really long and at certain times difficult dialogue yesterday with Mr. Cooper," Borko Stefanovic, Belgrade's top negotiator, told reporters in northern Kosovo. "We have a good chance in the days that follow to resolve this crisis."
Michael Mann, spokesman for the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, told a news briefing in Brussels that Cooper was seeking to spark new dialogue.
"His message to both sides is that it is now critical to return to dialogue and resolve underlying issues without delay," the spokesman said.
Serbia and Kosovo have held talks in Brussels to resolve the trade dispute, as part of an EU-mediated dialogue that aims to untangle a host of differences that make it difficult for Kosovo to function as a state.
NATO's force in Kosovo currently numbers nearly 6,000. Diplomats said the reserve battalion that has been kept on standby in Germany has 600 German troops and 100 Austrians.
(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom, Ilona Wissenbach and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; editing by Gareth Jones)
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