November 27, 2000
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica called Monday for the UN Security Council to hold talks "promptly" on the latest Kosovo violence, which he reiterated threatens the whole region. In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan he said Serbian police must be able to return to the buffer zone between Kosovo and Serbia as soon as possible, saying Serb citizens must be protected. "I hope the Security Council will react promptly on this situation," he said in the letter dated Monday in Belgrade, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. "I would like to ask you kindly ... to do your utmost to prevent new incidents and eliminate the fear that overwhelmed the population in the area," he said.
Kostunica, who cut short Monday a visit to Vienna to deal with the mounting tension at home, said the unrest in the region was preventing the return of 226,000 non-Albanian refugees who have fled Kosovo since the UN took over the province. "I cannot believe that the international community would allow things to develop in such an unfavourable direction, particularly given that such an attitude would threaten the security of the region as a whole."
He said the KFOR peacekeeping force and the UN operation running Kosovo had allowed large groups of armed Albanian paramilitaries into the zone, forcing lightly armed Serbs to leave their posts. "Only if the UN civilian and security presences fulfil their mandate in its entirety ... will the situation in Kosovo be stabilized, violence curbed and will no longer spill over into southern Serbia."
He reiterated that Belgrade will not breach an accord banning anything other than lightly armed Serb police in the zone, known as the Ground Security Zone (GSZ). "Our police and military will not enter the GSZ in order to fight the terrorists, but viable conditions for the return of local police to the zone must be created as soon as possible," he said.
Belgrade "has the right and obligation to protect the security of its citizens," he said. Earlier in the day Kostunica said he had sent letters to Annan and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson.
