Financial Times - August 2, 1999
NATO FAILS TO CONTAIN VIOLENCE By Kevin Done in Pristina
Bernard Kouchner, the United Nations administrator for Kosovo, yesterday condemned the bombing of a Serbian Orthodox cathedral in Pristina, the latest sign that international troops are failing to contain violence in the province.
The explosion, early yesterday morning, came just hours after Tony Blair, the British prime minister, had triumphantly toured the province's capital. He told crowds of chanting ethnic Albanian Kosovans that the war-torn region had reached a turning point.
Mr Blair, who went to Kosovo after an international conference held in Sarajevo to discuss how to promote peace and stability in the Balkan region, urged the people of Pristina, whether Albanian or Serb, "to live in friendship with one another".
The explosion at the cathedral was followed by a Nato admission that the murder rate in Kosovo was running at about 30 people a week. Most of the victims have been Serb.
Jamie Shea, Nato's spokesman in Brussels, said there was a vacuum in law and order in the province in spite of the presence of 35,000 Nato troops. He said the situation was "grave but it is not catastrophic".
In addition to murders there have been hundreds of cases of looting, arson and the harassment and intimidation of the dwindling Serb population, as Albanians have sought revenge for the atrocities and repression of the Serb regime in the past two years.
Mr Shea said: "We've got soldiers but soldiers don't make the best policemen. We lack a system of judges and courts to try those who are guilty and sentence them."
Mr Shea said 3,000 United Nations police would be sent to the province in coming months. Training would also start soon for a local police force of Kosovans.
Mr Kouchner will seek to restart the stalled political dialogue with Albanian and Serb Kosovan leaders this week after the return of Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Kosovar Albanian leader.
Two weeks ago, Mr Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) boycotted the first meeting of the Kosovo Transitional Council, the multi-ethnic consultative body the UN has sought to establish to allow Kosovar leaders some influence over UN decision making.
Leaders of the Serb community also refused to attend after the massacre of 14 Serb farmers in their fields near the village of Gracko, south of Pristina.
Three ethnic Albanians have been detained for questioning by British military police in connection with the murders in Gracko. Weapons, ammunition and clothing recovered from the murder sites and from houses in the area are being sent to London for forensic examination by the Metropolitan Police.