NATO says can't be police force for Kosovo

[Marcus Marulus]

NATO says can't be police force for Kosovo


A NATO peacekeeper from Italy stands near an armoured vehicle as he guards the entrance of the U.N. court compound in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica March 27, 2008.(Nebojsa Markovic/Reuters)

By Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO troops should not be left to shoulder police tasks in Kosovo, the U.S.-led alliance said on Wednesday as signs grew that a European Union plan to take over police duties there faced months of delay.


Kosovo's ethnic Albanian government asked the EU to take over policing from the United Nations when it declared independence from Serbia in February, but Serb ally Russia has so far blocked any formal handover.

EU officials say the diplomatic logjam has held up their preparations for the mission and NATO is worried that its 16,000-plus KFOR peacekeeping force will be left to perform classic police duties such as crowd control.

"We don't want KFOR to be in the position of first responder. It is not a police force and should not be in the position of being a police force," an alliance spokesman said.

"We can and do ask other international organizations to play that role," he told reporters in Brussels as NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer headed to New York to discuss the issue with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Tensions with the ethnic Serb minority in northern Kosovo erupted into riots last month in which one U.N. police officer was killed and dozens were injured. NATO peacekeepers say conditions have been relatively calm since.

Alliance diplomats fear a scenario in which heavily armed NATO soldiers are called on to police demonstrations or deal with disturbances, tasks for which they have not been trained.

The 27-member EU initially hoped its 2,200-strong EULEX force would be able to take over police tasks ranging from riot control to training of senior officers by mid-June.

But with no formal handover agreed, the United Nations in Kosovo (UNMIK) mission is remaining on the ground. The logjam is preventing the EU personnel from taking over their premises and raising broader questions about how the two will coordinate.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said this week he expected the EULEX mission to be fully operational in September or October, and EU officials now expect a potentially awkward period of cohabitation with UNMIK for some time.

Others are more sanguine, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confident of a compromise allowing the United Nations to begin withdrawing soon.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said this week he also expected to discuss the matter with Ban Ki-moon on the margins of a conference on Iraq in Stockholm on Thursday.

(Reporting by Mark John; editing by David Brunnstrom and Richard Balmforth)

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