U.S. Impatient With U.N. Pace in Kosovo

U.S. defense officials and lawmakers Tuesday decried the United Nations’ slow progress in assuming civil control of Kosovo, warning that delays are increasing the dangers and difficulties involved in rebuilding the battered province.

At a Senate hearing, officials and legislators said the peacekeeping troops are struggling to halt revenge killings, administer justice, provide basic health and utility services, and rebuild homes and factories.

They recalled earlier missions, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Haiti, during which U.N.-organized groups moved tardily or ineffectively, in the U.S. view.

“The international community needs to move fast,” Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. While the fledgling organization in Kosovo “is beginning to do good work,” the U.N. “needs to put a lot of emphasis behind this right now to get on the ground.”

A NATO-led peacekeeping force has been the sole authority in Kosovo--a province of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic--since Serbian forces withdrew in early June. The U.N. has formally assumed responsibility for administering Kosovo, including assembling a police force that is to number 3,100 personnel.

With only a few weeks’ notice, the U.N. has been unable to prevail on member nations to quickly provide volunteer police.

Shelton said the civilian police are needed to enforce justice in outlying areas that the troops could never effectively patrol, and to foster a perception of evenhanded justice for Serbs and ethnic Albanians alike.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said peacekeepers are rebuilding homes and providing electricity and other necessities. But, he warned, “the more we do, the less incentive there is for the U.N. to come in and assume that burden.”

Cohen said officials of the White House, State Department and Pentagon are pressing the U.N. to step up its efforts.

Several lawmakers cited what they saw as shortcomings in the U.N.’s past performance. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said it has a “terrible track record” in attempts to build police forces. Because U.N. officials ask for volunteers, he said, “they get sometimes high-quality police officers, sometimes low-quality police officers.”

A U.N. spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said the Kosovo mission is the most far-reaching project the world body has ever undertaken in a war-torn area.

“In so many areas, we have to start from scratch,” she said. “We don’t have judges and police and civil administrators in our building to deploy.”

Some outside experts defended the U.N., pointing out that it is at the mercy of its member nations, which supply the volunteers.

“All the United Nations can do is pass the hat around [for volunteers],” said Kurt Bassuener, associate director of the Balkans Action Council, a group that advocates stronger Western action in the region. “It isn’t fair.”