Top U.N. Official in Kosovo Pleads for More Funds

The chief U.N. administrator in Kosovo made a plea Thursday for funds at a meeting here of foreign ministers from NATO nations and partner countries.

Bernard Kouchner said he needs millions of dollars to pay teachers, police officers and other civil workers in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic. Making peace and building democracy aren’t free, he said, adding that a lack of funds had reduced him to “beggar” status.

Kouchner, a Frenchman, came to Brussels on the final day of a two-day meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers to brief them about Kosovo.

“Without money, no success,” Kouchner said. “Without money, no confidence. Without money, no restarting of daily life.”

At the NATO defense ministers’ meeting two weeks ago, the commander of allied forces in Kosovo, German Gen. Klaus Reinhardt, said the United Nations needed $120 million to pay civil workers and $10 million for the Kosovo Protection Corps, a civil defense unit.

George Robertson, NATO’s secretary-general, said Kouchner’s message would reverberate in capitals around the world.

“It is widely recognized that it is not going to be easy or quick to move from the killing fields of [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic to a multiethnic, tolerant democracy,” said Robertson, a Briton. “But huge efforts have already been made, and enormous progress is there. But the international community must do more.”

Meanwhile, the Defense Department said Thursday that a U.S. soldier was killed in Kosovo on Wednesday night when the military vehicle in which he was riding struck a mine.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon identified the victim as Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Suponcic, 26, of Jersey Shore, Pa.