Solana bid to defuse tensions after Balkan convoy outrage

Date: 22/02/01

EU FOREIGN policy chief Javier Solana wants member states to tackle a rising wave of attacks on Serb civilians by ethnic Albanian renegades on Serbia's southern border with Kosovo.

Solana wrote to Union foreign ministers last weekend setting out a three-point plan designed to defuse tensions between the two sides. He "unreservedly" condemned the latest Albanian terrorist outrage, an attack on a convoy that left ten Serbs dead.

External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten called it a "medieval barbarity", adding that the attacks were an attempt to "thwart" progress towards "moderation and democracy".

Solana wants to use EU observers on the ground to find moderate figures from the Albanian community to negotiate with the Serbs. He has also backed efforts by local politicians to set up a multi-ethnic police force.

Solana has also called on member states to provide extra money for emergency humanitarian assistance. The situation will be discussed by foreign ministers when they meet in Brussels next Monday.

Yugoslavia has criticised NATO-led troops for failing to effectively police a five-kilometre buffer zone created between Kosovo and Serbia in 1999.

Belgrade says the Albanian gangs are attacking Serb civilians and security forces within the zone. Only lightly-armed Serbian police are allowed to enter the area under an agreement with NATO. Albanian nationalists want the zone to become part of Kosovo.

Solana's effort comes as the Union has launched an unprecedented campaign to inform Serbians about the EU's efforts to reintegrate the Balkan country into the European mainstream after years of enforced isolation during the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

For the first time in its history, the EU is using direct advertising to publicise its actions in Serbia, which include a subsidised energy programme, a scheme to provide essential drugs and a plan to rebuild 140 schools.

EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, wants member states to tackle a rising wave of attacks on Serb civilians by ethnic Albanian renegades on Serbia's southern border with Kosovo.