> Friday, 10-May-2002 12:30PM
> ZAGREB, May 10 (AFP) - Several Balkans leaders called
> Friday for greater international involvement in
> Kosovo, warning that the province was facing "ethnic
> homogenisation" due to the departure of its
> non-Albanian population.
> "The international community is not sufficiently
> active in approaching the problem," Montenegro
> President Milo Djukanovic said at a meeting of the
> International Press Institute (IPI) that opened Friday
> in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.
> "The process of ethnic homogenisation has continued"
> in the province in a "very negative" way for Kosovo's
> future, Djukanovic warned during a debate on the
> situation in the Balkans.
> Dozens of ethnic Serbs have been killed and tens of
> thousands have fled Kosovo since it came under UN
> administration in 1999, following the NATO bombing of
> Serbia to end a bloody crackdown on the province's
> ethnic Albanian majority by former president Slobodan
> Milosevic.
> The exodus has followed alleged revenge attacks by
> Kosovo's ethnic Albanians seeking to level the score
> for years of political repression under the Milosevic
> regime.
> Thousands of other non-Albanian minorities targeted
> for their alleged collaboration with Serb troops
> during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo have also fled.
> The international community should adopt a "more
> aggressive policy" against the process, Djukanovic
> said.
> Croatian President Stipe Mesic echoed Djukanovic's
> view, estimating it was necessary to "counter this
> policy," aimed at creating an "ethnic state" in
> Kosovo. He said it was preferable to hold talks now
> rather than face trouble later.
> "It is difficult to foresee but better to negotiate
> for ten years than fight a war for ten days," Mesic
> concluded.
> Zivko Radisic, the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite
> presidency, stressed that the situation in Kosovo
> would have "unavoidable" consequences on stability in
> Macedonia, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia.
> Slovenia's parliamentary speaker Borut Pahor, who
> recently visited Pristina, urged for a halt to the
> current "wait and see" policy.
> NATO has deployed some 38,000 troops in the Kosovo
> Force (KFOR) but is planning to reduce the
> contribution by 4,800.