Info

NATO to stay in Kosovo until "job is done" NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, during a fact-finding mission to the Balkans, repeated the Alliance's commitment to a multi-ethnic Kosovo and pledged that NATO and KFOR would remain in the divided province "until the job is done". The mission from 17 to 19 July involved the entire North Atlantic Council (NAC), which is NATO's senior decision-making body comprising Lord Robertson, the 19 NATO ambassadors and Admiral Guido Venturoni, the chairman of NATO's Military Committee. It included visits to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (1) and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo. In undertaking the visit, the NAC demonstrated the Alliance's commitment to maintaining peace and stability throughout southeastern Europe, showed that it supports the rights of all ethnic groups and that it will devote the time and the resources to build an environment in which democracy can begin to take root. In some of his toughest remarks on ethnic violence, Lord Robertson warned Kosovar Albanian leaders that attacks by Albanian extremists on Serbs and other minorities risked dividing the province into ethnic cantons. "Don't under-estimate our determination," Lord Robertson said. "We are going to protect a multi-ethnic society here and we'll do it if necessary by making sure the individual groups are protected in their homes and communities." "If it involves building walls round them, barbed wire round them, giving them the protection they need, then we will do it." He said that NATO in no way supported creating cantons, but it was no good Kosovar Albanian leaders talking about the dangers of cantonisation and then acquiescing in actions that forced ethnic minorities to band together to seek safety. In Bosnia, Lord Robertson was equally blunt, urging Bosnian leaders to speed peace building and ordinary Bosnians to reject ethnic-based politics in elections scheduled for this autumn. He also made clear that the country's various ethnic-based militaries had to unify under a single command before the country could be considered as a candidate for NATO's Partnership for Peace programme. And he warned that Bosnia needed to root out corruption and start developing a self-sustaining economy, rather than attempt to rely indefinitely on international aid. Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name.