Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 0:13:08 GMT -5
British general holds key to Kosovo's future
By Thomas Harding in Pristina
Last Updated: 2:31am GMT 11/02/2008
A British general given the key task of preventing bloodshed in Kosovo has warned of the "high stakes" involved as the province prepares to declare independence from Serbia this week.
Maj Gen Rutledge: arms fear
With tension in Kosovo building as the ethnic Albanian majority prepares to achieve its centuries-old goal of independence next Sunday, the job of keeping the country's dominant former guerrilla leaders in line has fallen to Maj Gen Martin Rutledge.
"If my office got it wrong we could significantly destabilise events that are going to unfold in the next few months," he told The Daily Telegraph.
"I don't think that's an overstatement. We are playing for quite high stakes."
He not only faces the daunting task of preventing a violent backlash but also has the delicate job of dismissing the majority of the civil defence force's senior officers after independence.
By next weekend it will be seen whether a decade of United Nations protection and the investment of billions of dollars has borne fruit.
It is expected that Kosovo will declare its "supervised" independence, supported by at least 100 countries, in defiance of Serbia and its ally Russia.
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Confounded by the inability of Belgrade, the Kosovo Serbs and Albanians to agree to any compromise, the detailed recommendations made by the UN envoy Marrti Ahtisaari will be implemented.
Independence will be welcomed by the Albanians who have "waited 3,000 years" but the Kosovo Serbs are chilled by the prospect and fearful of being driven from their homes in a province historically considered Serbian territory.
To prevent that there are 16,000 UN peacekeepers and it is hoped they will do a better job than they did in 2004 when Serbs were burned out of their homes and at least 19 civilians were killed in ethnic violence.
For the past nine years, the military ambitions of the former Kosovo Liberation Army's leaders have been curtailed by absorbing its commanders into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) - a civil defence force which acts as a fire service and is partly armed.
It also includes 15 generals and 40 colonels out of a force of 3,000. The force is to halve in size after independence.
"If we lost their trust they would have every opportunity to go off and do things we would not want them to," said Maj Gen Rutledge, the KPC's co-ordinator.
"They certainly know where the weapons are and how to get weapons so it is very important to dissolve them with dignity."
The KPC high command could unleash a torrent of ethnic cleansing that would probably see most of the remaining 100,000 Serbs driven out from the population of two million Albanians.
"In this environment it only needs few people to do something inappropriate," Maj Gen Rutledge said at his office in the capital Pristina.
"The KPC will be undoubtedly provoked during this period and I have spent a lot of time explaining why should not be."
But it is not only the soft word offered by the general, who is also the territory's de facto defence minister.
He said: "I will be fairly blunt to the generals that they need to behave and if they don't behave there are various sanctions that I have available to ensure that they do."
Also on standby to deploy is Britain's last remaining reserve battalion, called the Spearhead Lead Element, which could be in Kosovo within 24 hours of an emergency being called.
By Thomas Harding in Pristina
Last Updated: 2:31am GMT 11/02/2008
A British general given the key task of preventing bloodshed in Kosovo has warned of the "high stakes" involved as the province prepares to declare independence from Serbia this week.
Maj Gen Rutledge: arms fear
With tension in Kosovo building as the ethnic Albanian majority prepares to achieve its centuries-old goal of independence next Sunday, the job of keeping the country's dominant former guerrilla leaders in line has fallen to Maj Gen Martin Rutledge.
"If my office got it wrong we could significantly destabilise events that are going to unfold in the next few months," he told The Daily Telegraph.
"I don't think that's an overstatement. We are playing for quite high stakes."
He not only faces the daunting task of preventing a violent backlash but also has the delicate job of dismissing the majority of the civil defence force's senior officers after independence.
By next weekend it will be seen whether a decade of United Nations protection and the investment of billions of dollars has borne fruit.
It is expected that Kosovo will declare its "supervised" independence, supported by at least 100 countries, in defiance of Serbia and its ally Russia.
advertisement
Confounded by the inability of Belgrade, the Kosovo Serbs and Albanians to agree to any compromise, the detailed recommendations made by the UN envoy Marrti Ahtisaari will be implemented.
Independence will be welcomed by the Albanians who have "waited 3,000 years" but the Kosovo Serbs are chilled by the prospect and fearful of being driven from their homes in a province historically considered Serbian territory.
To prevent that there are 16,000 UN peacekeepers and it is hoped they will do a better job than they did in 2004 when Serbs were burned out of their homes and at least 19 civilians were killed in ethnic violence.
For the past nine years, the military ambitions of the former Kosovo Liberation Army's leaders have been curtailed by absorbing its commanders into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) - a civil defence force which acts as a fire service and is partly armed.
It also includes 15 generals and 40 colonels out of a force of 3,000. The force is to halve in size after independence.
"If we lost their trust they would have every opportunity to go off and do things we would not want them to," said Maj Gen Rutledge, the KPC's co-ordinator.
"They certainly know where the weapons are and how to get weapons so it is very important to dissolve them with dignity."
The KPC high command could unleash a torrent of ethnic cleansing that would probably see most of the remaining 100,000 Serbs driven out from the population of two million Albanians.
"In this environment it only needs few people to do something inappropriate," Maj Gen Rutledge said at his office in the capital Pristina.
"The KPC will be undoubtedly provoked during this period and I have spent a lot of time explaining why should not be."
But it is not only the soft word offered by the general, who is also the territory's de facto defence minister.
He said: "I will be fairly blunt to the generals that they need to behave and if they don't behave there are various sanctions that I have available to ensure that they do."
Also on standby to deploy is Britain's last remaining reserve battalion, called the Spearhead Lead Element, which could be in Kosovo within 24 hours of an emergency being called.