French in Kosovo
Re “Once Again, Milosevic Is Having His Way With Peacekeepers,” Opinion, Feb. 20: I was appalled by Susan Blaustein’s unfair and inaccurate account of what happened in Kosovska Mitrovica, accusing the French soldiers in the KFOR forces of favoring the Serbs against the Albanians. It is surprising that the effort to prevent the bloodshed of an armed confrontation between two ethnic groups should be blamed as taking sides.
Blaustein seems to ignore that France was the second-largest participant in the NATO airstrikes against Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslavia and that the French soldiers in Mitrovica were under the command of the multinational KFOR forces commanded by a German general. Her allegation that the “French have been loath to risk casualties” is outrageously insulting to a country that has lost 70 soldiers killed in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and that still has 4,500 men risking their lives in a zone considered from the start the most sensitive in Kosovo.
YO-JUNG CHEN, Vice Consul
Press and Communications
Consulate General of France
Los Angeles
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
