Summit Leaders Condemn Ethnic Violence in Kosovo

Balkan and European Union leaders called Friday for urgent action to stop ethnically motivated violence in and around Kosovo from spreading across the region.

A declaration issued at a Balkan summit in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, stopped just short of openly blaming ethnic Albanians, apparently due to pressure from the Albanian delegation, though most regional leaders put the blame squarely on them.

EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten issued a blunt warning to Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority to condemn and stop violence against Serbs or face international isolation.

“We have strongly condemned the violent and illegal terrorist actions by the ethnically motivated extremist armed groups in south Serbia, which could have the effect of destabilizing the situation in the region,” the document said.

It said leaders demanded an immediate and complete halt to violence in the area and also condemned “the use of violence, terrorism and extremism” in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.

In the last week, at least 14 people have been killed in Kosovo and Serbia proper’s Presevo Valley, just across the border from the province. Macedonia has also reported armed groups on its border with Kosovo.

The declaration was signed by leaders of Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and Romania, as well as by Patten and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

It did not specify what concrete action should be taken to halt the violence, which has dented Western hopes of a smooth transition to democracy in the region after the downfall of autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia last year.

Yugoslavia’s new leadership, however, has said North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeepers in Kosovo could and should be taking tougher security measures.