http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,2763,1201524,00.html > > THE GUARDIAN (UK) > Friday April 23, 2004 > > Western policy in Kosovo attacked > > Ian Traynor in Zagreb > > > Kosovo is in danger of becoming Europe's West Bank, a > destabilising source of unrest in the Balkans, because > of five years of flawed and failed western > policy-making and peacekeeping, the International > Crisis Group thinktank said yesterday. > It called for an overhaul of western policy in > response to last month's ethnic riots which killed 19 > and injured 900. > > Its 50-page study of the sudden Albanian offensive > against the dwindling Serbian minority strongly > criticised the Kosovo Albanian leadership and the > Serbian government in Belgrade. But it said the UN > administration should be scrapped and re-formed with a > new mandate and mission. > > In three days of rioting more than 50,000 Albanians > drove 4,500 Serbs from their homes. The report said > the Nato-led peacekeeping force, Kfor, responded > badly. > > Italian troops garrisoned next to a Serbian enclave > stood by; the reaction of French troops responsible > for another enclave, Mitrovica, where the violence > erupted, was even worse. > > At one point the French commander ordered the UN > civilian administrators and police units out of their > offices in the town, saying: "Leave the building. Burn > it down. Destroy the computers." > > The report said: "Kfor stood revealed as a paper > tiger, and will have difficulty redressing its > credibility deficit. [It] did a creditable > humanitarian job, but a terrible military one." > > It was "defeated" in all but one of the 33 riot > locations, the report said. > > The UN mission, led by the former Finnish prime > minister Harri Holkeri, was no longer an efficient or > a stabilising factor, it added. > > · US and Nato officials called yesterday for the > prosecution of those responsible for the riots, after > meeting officials in Belgrade and the Kosovan capital, > Pristina. > > Vuk Draskovic, the foreign minister of > Serbia-Montenegro, told them he hoped they would help > the beleaguered Serbs, just as they had helped the > Kosovo Albanians in 1999.