In an area of the world where ethnically clensed regions have divided into homogenous statelets, the creation of a multi-ethnicly governed Kosovo seems a quite admirable result of the NATO intervention.
A similar UN mandate for the West Bank may be the only real solution to escort out the Jewish settlers and to help curb the threats of bombers in Israel.
-- Nathan Newman ============================== April 17, 2002 Serb Coalition Agrees to Participate By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- A Serb coalition has agreed to participate in Kosovo's government after reaching a compromise with the U.N. administration of the province, the mission's top official said Wednesday. Parties representing ethnic Serbs, a minority in Kosovo, boycotted the province's new government because they were given control only of the agriculture ministry. The Serb coalition demanded it also be allowed to run the ministry overseeing the return of Serb refugees. Michael Steiner, chief U.N. administrator for the province, had insisted that refugee return was part of the U.N. mandate, but compromised by agreeing to accept a Serb-appointed adviser. ``It's safe to say ... that everybody on the Serb side agreed to my proposal,'' Steiner said Wednesday after meeting the central government's top official for Kosovo, Nebojsa Covic. The Serb lawmakers did not comment on the agreement. Kosovo remains part of Yugoslavia but has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when a NATO air war ended former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians. Milosevic's forces drove an estimated 800,000 ethnic Albanians from their homes and left thousands dead or missing. Tens of thousands of Serbs fled Kosovo after NATO and the United Nations began administering the province, fearing revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians. Although violence has decreased, tension between the communities persists and few Serbs have returned. Those who have returned live in enclaves protected by NATO-led peacekeepers. U.N. officials decline to give a schedule, but top Serb officials said they expect many of up to 200,000 Serbs to return in the summer.