UN Cautions Kosovo Albanians Over Talk of 'Revolt'

DEFENSE NEWS (USA), 09/20/06 11:16 By SHABAN BUZA, REUTERS, PRISTINA, Serbia

An attack on Kosovo's minority Serbs triggered a sharp warning from the United Nations to Albanian leaders on Sept. 20 to watch their words, after one forecast a "revolt" if they are denied independence from Serbia.

The comments by Kosovo parliament speaker Kole Berisha outraged Serbia, which accused him of blackmail ahead of a decision on Kosovo's fate.

The remarks also struck a nerve with U.N. officials trying to guide Kosovo through talks on its future without the violent meltdown many observers have predicted.

"If our aim of independence is not realized then citizens' revolts are expected in Kosovo," he said. "We don't want revolts, but we cannot exclude them if our aim is not realized."

Berisha first made the statement on Monday in Slovenia, and repeated it on his return to Kosovo late on Tuesday.

Hours after Berisha spoke a hand grenade was lobbed through the window of an apartment in the western town of Klina, wounding four elderly Serbs. They were former refugees who had returned to Kosovo last year having fled after the 1998-99 war.

U.N. deputy head Steven Schook said violence was "not in the interests of Kosovo."

"I hope the leaders of the government, unity [negotiating] team and local leaders are very careful with the phrases they use and the messages they direct to public opinion and the people right now," the American diplomat told reporters after meeting Berisha on Sept. 20.

The last major outbreak of violence was in March 2004, when mobs of Albanians overran Serb enclaves torching homes. Nineteen people died in two days of riots that caught 17,000 NATO peacekeepers off guard but effectively drew the attention of the world back to Kosovo's continuing limbo.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, spearheading Serbia's bid to keep the province, condemned the attack.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that Serbs are killed and Albanian separatists publicly threaten violence and blackmail the international community," Kostunica said in a late-night statement.

Finland's Martti Ahtisaari, the chief U.N. mediator in direct Serb-Albanian talks, briefs foreign ministers of the major powers on Wednesday in New York as he works towards a year-end deadline to propose a solution.

Serbia last week enshrined Kosovo in the preamble of a new constitution as forever Serbian. Addressing a military parade at the weekend, Kostunica said the province was and would remain "the heart of Serbia."

But Western diplomats say Kosovo will likely win independence, more than seven years since NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities and ethnic cleansing in a two-year war with Albanian guerrillas.

The United Nations fears a rise in violence as a decision nears, and even a bid by the mainly Serb north to split Kosovo in two.