600 German troops to be deployed in Kosovo to reinforce NATO-led peacekeepers

Associated Press, Wednesday, July 19, 2006 10:44 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-Hundreds of additional troops will be deployed in Kosovo over the next few weeks to reinforce the NATO-led peacekeeping force in the province, an alliance official said Wednesday.

The troops, part of NATO's quick reaction force, will be deployed throughout Kosovo and conduct province-wide operations, said Col. Pio Sabetta, a spokesman for the alliance's peacekeeping force, known as KFOR.

They will join some 17,000 NATO-led peacekeepers patrolling Kosovo since mid-1999, when an alliance air war halted Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians and forced Serbia to relinquish control of the province.

The battalion of some 600 German troops began its deployment in Kosovo on Monday and will stay in the province temporarily, Sabetta said.

The deployment "is not linked to any specific situation, but it's aimed to show NATO's willingness in keeping the commitment to Kosovo," he said.

The reinforcement comes as U.N. mediators intensify their efforts to solve the dispute over Kosovo. The envoys are scheduled to conduct the first high-level meeting between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian and Serbia's leaders in the Austrian capital, Vienna next week.

The two sides are to meet for first face-to-face talks with ethnic Albanian leaders of the breakaway Kosovo province's status on Monday in efforts to get the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians to agree on the future status of the province.

There have been fears of rising tensions between Kosovo's communities during the talks, which Western officials hope to wrap up by the end of the year.

Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia, although it has been run by the United Nations and patrolled by international peacekeepers since 1999. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on full independence, but the Serb minority and Belgrade want to retain some control over the province.

The U.N. police in Kosovo also announced Wednesday it will increase the presence of international police officers in two northern boundary crossings, both in predominantly Serb areas, between the province and Serbia, while keeping the local police officers in place there.

The move was agreed in a meeting between U.N. police commissioner Kai Vittrup and local Serb leaders in the northern municipalities, a police statement said.

Last month, an additional 500 U.N. police officers were deployed in Kosovo's troubled Serb-dominated north to increase security after the area saw a rise in ethnic tension.