NATO: No plans to reduce troops in Kosova
Apr. 28, 2006 ![]()
NATO foreign ministers agreed Friday they will keep the number of ground
troops unchanged in Kosova until the future of Serbia's province is decided.
"There is a general stand that the troops of
KFOR (Kosova Force) should remain at the present level until talks on the status
are completed," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.
NATO announced its decision at the end of a
two-day meeting of its foreign ministers in Sofia.
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said
NATO strongly supports the work of Marti Ahtisaari, the U.N. chief envoy
chairing talks between Serbs and ethnic-Albanians on the future status of
Kosova, which is 95 percent ethnic Albanian.
The talks are to enter a fourth round in Vienna, Austria, May 4-5.
Formally, Kosova is still part of Serbia, but
the province has been under U.N. administration and NATO ground troops
protection since 1999, when NATO air attacks forced Serbian troops to withdraw
from the Kosova.
NATO forces reacted to stop
persecution of Kosova ethnic-Albanian separatists by police and military forces
of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
