Kosovo police replace U.N. border forces

United Press International, August 14, 2006

PRISTINA, Serbia, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Police in Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province on Monday replaced U.N. civilian forces overseeing Pristina's airport.

The Kosovo police units also assumed control of the province's borders with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, Belgrade's Beta news agency reported.

Political analysts in Pristina saw the authority transfer from the U.N. administration to the Kosovo provincial police as recognition of high standards under which the ethnic-Albanian-led law enforcement is organized, Beta said.

Formally, Kosovo is Serbia's province, but since 1999 it has been administered by a U.N. civilian mission.

NATO troops have been deployed to prevent ethnic conflicts between the Serb minority of 100,000 and ethnic-Albanians who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population.

U.N.-led, Serb-ethnic Albanian talks, under way in Austria since February, will decide who will govern Kosovo once U.N. and NATO personnel leave.