U.N. Urged To Step Into Kosovo Unrest
August 3, 2011 by UPI - United Press International, Inc.
BELGRADE, Serbia, Aug. 3 (UPI) — A former U.N. representative in northern Kosovo called for peacekeepers to be sent to the troubled region Wednesday.
“It is time perhaps for the U.N. to take over the north and send its peacekeepers back, because this is maybe the only way to keep peace until there is a political settlement,” Gerard Gallucci said in an interview reported by the Serbian broadcaster B92.
He condemned attempts by the Kosovo Albanian government in Pristina to take over checkpoints in the Serbian-populated north as a provocation.
“It probably had some sort of quiet support from the major international supporters of Kosovo,” he charged, singling out the United States and Britain.
Meanwhile, Serbia’s representatives in Kosovo called for all sides to show restraint.
Top negotiator Borislav Stefanovic told B92 his talks with Erhard Buhler, commander of NATO’s KFOR force, were “constructive.”
Goran Bogdanovic, Belgrade’s minister for Kosovo affairs, said, “We have called on everybody to restrain themselves, not to use force, that we on our part are making an enormous effort in order to keep the people calm,” referring to local Serbs.
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