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Istok, 13
May, 2000: When the Spanish Minister of Defense, Mr.
Federico Trillo visited Kosovo on Friday, he said that NATO and
KFOR will stay in Kosovo for a long time.
Trillo was received
at Pristina Airport by COMKFOR, Lt. Gen. Juan Ortuo. Chief of
the Spanish defense, Gen. D. Santiago Valderas also joined the
visit.
Later, Trillo
traveled together with COMKFOR by helicopter to Istok, the headquarters
of the Spanish troops in Kosovo. Here the Spanish military staff
informed the minister about the details of the mission.
"A whole generation
will be necessary to resolve the conflict, and the military presence
in Kosovo will be long," Trillo said convinced that only the presence
of over 45,000 soldiers, among them 1,200 Spaniards, is able to
contain the violence of two communities that hate each other.
"Only when there
is a multiethnic education based on tolerance and respect, the
coexistence will be guaranteed," the minister added.
Trillo assured
that the Spanish army is an example of how a democratic army should
be in the 21st century, and he also said that the Spanish have
come to guarantee the human rights and freedom of all citizens.
The minister
added that although sometimes some actions of the army and the
non-governmental organizations (NGO) are similar, it would be
absolutely impossible that this type of organizations replaced
the military in the Balkans.
"These are missions
in which a specific preparation is required, suitable operational
capacity, structure of control, and mainly capacity of dissuasion,
things that no NGO can have," said Trillo.
Normally, the
military does the war, but Kosovo is different.
"In Kosovo, the
actors of the war were civilians, and the military brought the
peace," Trillo said.
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