10 June 2004 10:40
BELGRADE WANTS RUSSIAN HELP TO ENSURE RETURN OF DISPLACED SERBS
MOSCOW, June 10 (ONASA/AFP) - Vuk Draskovic, the foreign minister of Serbia and Montenegro, said Thursday he expected
Russia to help secure the return of displaced Serbs to Kosovo. "Russia must insist within the Contact Group (on
Kosovo) on three conditions being met," he told the foreign affairs committee of the Duma, the lower house of
Russia's parliament, Ria-Novosti news agency reported. The conditions are the rebuilding of Serb houses, churches
and monasteries destroyed in the southern Serbian province, earmarking funds for the return of refugees and organizing
Serb local power bodies. "We must rebuild what was destroyed and finance the return of 200,000 Serbs and members of
other non-Albanian populations who were driven out," Draskovic said. The contact group on Kosovo groups foreign
ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States. Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian
majority, has been run by the UN since June 1999, after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian troops to end their
bloody crackdown on the Albanian population in the province. Russia, which shares deep cultural roots with Serbia,
opposed the campaign. During his stay here, Draskovic met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
[ONASA News Agency] |
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