By Thomas W. Lippman
July 2, 1999
United Nations, New York - A meeting of 18 foreign ministers and international relief officials has begun the UN-led effort to administer and rebuild Kosovo, but has found itself divided on key issues, including whether some reconstruction aid should be directed to Serbia.
The four-hour gathering here Wednesday, led by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, dramatized the scope of the UN commitment in the battered province. Big questions - including the cost of rebuilding Kosovo, the time it would take, and how to handle the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army - went unanswered. So did smaller questions, such as what currency Kosovo will use, who will run the schools and courts, and who will be in charge of the UN civilian administration.
Mr. Annan, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other representatives of the Group of Eight industrial countries, Security Council members and several international organizations said after the meeting that they were encouraged by pledges of support, including the commitment of 1,900 international police by UN members to keep order in the province.
But the officials said they also recognized that the United Nations had assumed unprecedented responsibilities as the de facto sovereign power in Kosovo. ''There clearly is a huge challenge ahead of us,'' Mrs. Albright said. ''The military part of the campaign was only the beginning of what is a very long-term and difficult proposition.''
''The water, the power, the sewerage, the schools, the hospitals, the UN civilian administration is going to have to do everything,'' another U.S. official said.
Despite statements affirming their unanimity of purpose, it was apparent that the ministers encountered difficulty in deciding on specific issues they now face as governors of a territory. Even the basic question of whether to arm the UN-sponsored police force produced disagreement. U.S. and Canadian officials said the police would have to be armed because Kosovo remained violent and dangerous, but Mr. Annan said some countries would not contribute to the force if members carried weapons.
Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy of Canada and UN officials stressed the urgency not only of establishing the interim civilian administration, but also of moving ahead with political arrangements for Kosovo self-government. They said those moves were needed to prevent the development of a vacuum that could be filled by the Kosovo rebel army. The desire to prevent the Kosovo Liberation Army from seizing exclusive political control will be reflected in the composition of a 1,000-member Kosovar police force to be recruited and trained over the coming year. Individual members of the KLA will be allowed to apply for positions on the force, a senior U.S. official said, but they will have to compete with other applicants and sever their ties to the rebel army.
