Global Policy Forum

By Edith M. Lederer

Responding to a rash of ethnic violence in Kosovo, key U.N. officials warned the province's leaders Tuesday to confront growing extremism there or face being ostracized by the rest of Europe. At an open council meeting, U.N. Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno and many Security Council members denounced last month's rioting and arson by ethnic Albanian mobs against minority Serbs — the worst since the United Nations began running the province five years ago — and called it a major setback to rebuilding Kosovo.

According to Guehenno, 19 people died in the violence and 954 civilians, 65 international police officers, 58 Kosovo police and 61 members of the NATO-led peacekeeping force were injured. In addition, 36 Serbian Orthodox churches and religious sites and some 730 homes, nearly all of which belonged to Kosovo minorities, were burned or damaged.

The onslaught, led by Kosovo Albanian extremists, underscored the depth of hatred between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who want independence, and Serbs, who want Kosovo to remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state to Yugoslavia. While the overall situation is now quiet, Guehenno told the council the province remains tense and "there continues to be a potential for further violence" with sporadic attacks still taking place against international and local police.

"Kosovo's leaders must leave no doubt of their wholehearted commitment to tackle and confront extremism and extremist positions — including within their own ranks — and to hold those politicians responsible, and to discipline those civil servants who may have played an instrumental role in fomenting or participating in the violence," he said. "The message they are called on to convey to Kosovo's representatives and its population is simple and clear: there can be no peaceful and prosperous future for Kosovo without respect for the diversity of its people — violence will not be rewarded," he said.

The United Nations has been administering Kosovo since a 78-day NATO bombing campaign forced Yugoslav troops to withdraw from the province in June 1999. The NATO action ended then-President Slobodan Milosevic's attacks against the province's ethnic Albanian majority, but the end of the war unleashed a spate of revenge attacks against Kosovo Serbs.

U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham said last month's violence "was clearly a setback in Kosovo's development into a society that can become part of Europe" and posed a challenge to the international community which must now ensure that it fulfills U.N. standards and becomes a peaceful, multi-ethnic democracy. He indicated the United Nations will not decide Kovoso's future status until this happens. "Those who believe that violence can be used to further a political agenda should know that the United States and the international community shall not pursue a final status decision until Kosovo can ensure a peaceful and secure environment for all its communities," Cunningham said. Germany's U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, the current Security Council president, said Kosovo's political leader "must leave no doubt about their commitment to protecting minorities and building a multi-ethnic society."