Ethnic Cleansing 'to Follow Kosovo Partition'

Dmitrij Rupel

“Serbs don't only live in Mitrovica but also elsewhere, and we by all means want to avoid new ethnic cleansing,” Dmitrij Rupel told the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York.

Rupel, whose country currently holds the rotating European Union presidency said the UN should play an important role in avoiding the possible partition of Kosovo.

The Serb minority there opposes Kosovo's independence, and furnished with political and financial assistance from Belgrade, have resisted the February 17 declaration of independence by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders.

Many Kosovo Serbs reside in the four municipalities north of the River Ibar, including the divided town of Mitrovica which has become the focus of inter-ethnic tension.

But unlike northern Kosovo which is directly linked with Serbia, some 60 percent of Serbs are scattered in enclaves throughout the territory with little freedom of movement and under constant guard of NATO troops.

There is concern that any bid by Serbia to take over northern Kosovo could leave Serbs in the enclaves isolated and vulnerable and with little option to leave and move north.

Rupel also held talks with Ban on how the EU's new law and order mission, EULEX, will takeover from the UN as the main supervisory body in Kosovo.

Ban and Rupel said that both the United Nations and European Union are waiting for the results of the snap elections in Serbia due for May 11, which will pit pro-western parties against nationalist ones.