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EU launches mission across volatile Kosovo
AFP - Wednesday, December 10
PRISTINA (AFP) - - The EU's justice mission for Kosovo -- the bloc's biggest ever civilian operation -- officially took over Tuesday from a post-war UN mission across the disputed territory despite tensions.
Dressed in fresh uniforms and wearing blue berets, some 100 members of the European Union mission known as EULEX entered the volatile north, where Serbs form a majority and oppose the mission.
"EULEX Kosovo has begun operations. Judges, prosecutors, police, customs and correctional officers were at their work posts throughout the territory," said a mission statement.
Kosovo, with a 90-percent ethnic Albanian population, seceded from southern Serbia on February 17. It has since been recognised by more than 50 countries, including most EU nations and the United States.
Initially comprising almost 2,000 staff, EULEX faces a difficult task to win over a hardcore of sceptical ethnic Albanians and Serbs while overseeing Kosovo's transition.
"The aim is to significantly improve the rule of law situation to the benefit of all the communities of Kosovo," said EULEX chief Yves de Kermabon.
"Our goals will not be achieved overnight. People will have to be patient. But I assure you, we are focused, we are determined and we will make a difference," said the former commander of the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR).
The European mission supplants its almost decade-old UN counterpart UNMIK, while the 16,000 troops of KFOR will remain in place.
Its full deployment was delayed for around six months largely due to opposition from Serbia, which continues its diplomatic battle against Kosovo's independence.
Serbia and its ally Russia finally agreed to back EULEX in November, ending a power vacuum in Kosovo where the EU mission was to originally replace the UN one in June.
Belgrade supported the deployment as part of a six-point UN plan, under which EULEX will remain neutral regarding Kosovo's status while Serb-majority areas were to remain under the UN umbrella.
Under the deal, EULEX was to progressively take over from UNMIK in Serb strongholds like the northern half of Kosovska Mitrovica, the flashpoint northern town ethnically divided by the Ibar river.
On Tuesday, however, the first EULEX contingent was already deployed in Mitrovica without incident despite fears of a possible backlash by hardline Serbs.
Some 20 EULEX members, including seven judges and prosecutors, arrived in jeeps and trucks bearing EU emblems before entering a Mitrovica court that Serbs violently seized following independence.
Further north on the border with Serbia, EULEX customs personnel began setting up a checkpoint at Jerinje, one of two posts Serbs torched around the same time.
EULEX will have limited executive powers reserved notably to investigate war crimes and organised crime.
The outgoing UN mission came in for criticism for failing to properly use its powers during its administration of Kosovo, ever since NATO's 1999 air war drove out Serbian forces waging a brutal crackdown on Albanian separatists.
Leading global rights group Amnesty International warned on Monday that the EU mission must address a huge backlog of war crimes and other violations neglected by UNMIK.
Speaking on national television, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Goran Bogdanovic, encouraged EULEX to resolve remaining post-war issues.
"I expect the EULEX mission, in contrast to UNMIK, to make more effort to protect the most endangered ethnic community -- in this case the Serbs," Bogdanovic said.
But Kosovo Albanian leaders hailed its launch.
"The Kosovo government will cooperate closely with the authorities of EULEX," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said after meeting with mission representatives.
The mission, which has an initial two-year mandate, will vary in size over time and is expected reach full capacity with some 3,000 staff in early 2009.
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Enlarge Photo
A French policemen of the EULEX mission stands guard in front of the court in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica. The EU's justice mission for Kosovo -- the bloc's biggest ever civilian operation -- officially took over Tuesday from a post-war UN mission across the disputed territory despite tensions.
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