NATO's future commander in Kosovo visits the disputed province

Associated Press, Tuesday, June 20, 2006 5:45 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-NATO's next commander in Kosovo toured the disputed province where the alliance's troops have been deployed since the end of a 1998-99 war between separatist ethnic Albanians and Serb government forces, a NATO official said Tuesday.

Germany's Maj. Gen. Roland Kather spent a week in Kosovo to review the security and political situation and held discussions with officials from NATO and the United Nations, as well as with local leaders, said Col. Pio Sabetta, spokesman for the peacekeeping force known as KFOR.

Kather is to take over command of KFOR's 17,000 peacekeepers at a ceremony on Sept. 1, when he will replace the current commander, Italy's Lt. Gen. Giuseppe Valotto, who led the force for nearly a year.

Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since a 1999 NATO air war halted the crackdown by Serb forces on ethnic Albanian rebels.

Talks to determine Kosovo's future, whether it becomes an independent state as the ethnic Albanians demand, or remains attached to Serbia as the province's minority Serbs insist, are under way and are aimed at steering the two sides toward settling the province's status by the end of the year.

The alliance's peacekeepers are in charge of the overall security of the province.