[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 2:35 AM Subject: [yugoslaviainfo] Putin Blasts West For Caving In To Albanian Extremists http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?f=/stories/20010618/putin.html "In fact the Kosovo scenario is being repeated...and we know where that could take us." June 18, 2001 Putin blasts West for caving in to Albanian 'radicals' Shaban Buza Reuters, with files from The Daily Telegraph PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA - In a surprise visit to Kosovo, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, warned yesterday the "Kosovo scenario" was being repeated in Macedonia and criticized the West for pressuring its Slav majority to agree to the demands of Albanian "extremists." "The situation in Macedonia is developing into a very difficult scenario," Mr. Putin told commanders of the Russian contingent in the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo. "The leadership of the country is under serious pressure to force it to meet the demands of extremists. In fact the Kosovo scenario is being repeated ... and we know where that could take us," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. Mr. Putin's trip to Kosovo followed his overnight visit to Belgrade, which made him the first Kremlin leader to visit the Yugoslav capital since the bloody breakup of the old Socialist Yugoslav federation. Ethnic Albanian guerrillas, with backing from Kosovo, began operating in Macedonia earlier this year, bringing the majority Orthodox Slav country to the brink of civil war. NATO has tightened its control of the Kosovo-Macedonia border to try to stop weapons and men crossing, and Western leaders are pressing the Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders to agree to constitutional changes to address the minority's concerns. Mr. Putin said Macedonia's borders with Albania and the Kosovo part of Yugoslavia should be blocked. "It is necessary to undertake urgent measures to close channels of financing to the militants," he said. "And finally, on the political level it is very important that nobody in the region has illusions that the international community will accept changes of internationally recognized borders and attempts to solve political problems by force." The Russian President said his borders initiative aimed at promoting a comprehensive settlement to ethnic strife in the region through "mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity." Earlier in Belgrade at his meeting with Vojislav Kostunica, the Yugoslav President, Mr. Putin said Yugoslavia needed help from the international community and Russians, who share Orthodox Slav roots with the Serbs, were ready to play a part. "Stability in the region is seriously threatened, above all from national religious extremism and intolerance, the main source of which today is in Kosovo," he said. Both leaders urged the international community to work to disarm Albanian "terrorists," referring to attacks on Kosovo's dwindling Serb population and gunmen in neighbouring Macedonia. But Mr. Putin's borders initiative is likely to infuriate Kosovo's independence-minded Albanians, who hope that the international community, which made the province a United Nations' protectorate in 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes, will eventually agree. The Russian President was also critical of a plan for self-government in Kosovo, saying it was approved in circumvention of the United Nations Security Council and that it had significant drawbacks. "Too many concessions have been made to radicals," he said about the blueprint unveiled last month by Hans Haek-kerup, the UN's Kosovo governor, which paves the way for province-wide elections on Nov. 17. Mr. Putin later held talks with Mr. Haek-kerup and a visiting delegation of ambassadors of the 15-member Security Council and Norwegian General Thorstein Skiaker, the head of the peacekeepers. Russia has about 3,000 troops in a force of about 40,000 peacekeepers who replaced Yugoslav forces in Kosovo after the NATO air strikes to stop Belgrade's repression of the province's ethnic Albanians. In his meeting with Mr. Kostunica, Mr. Putin presented a plan for a regional conference that would re-establish regional stability. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Spot the hottest trends in music, movies, and more. http://buzz.yahoo.com/
