Agence France Presse, June 21 2000

One ethnic cleansing in Kosovo has replaced another: UN enovy

BELGRADE, June 21 (AFP) -

The UN human rights envoy in the Balkans, Jiri Dienstbier, warned Wednesday that "one ethnic cleansing has been replaced by another" in the restive Serbian province of Kosovo.

"What is happening in Kosovo is not some sort of revenge" of ethnic Albanians against the remaining Serb and non-Albanian population in the province, Dienstbier told journalists in Belgrade .

Since Yugoslav troops pulled out of the province a year ago, Kosovo Serbs have become the target of violence. In recent weeks, an increased number of attacks, including drive-by shootings, have left 10 Serbs dead and more than 20 injured.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia , Carla del Ponte, said Wednesday that the tribunal was looking into possible crimes by the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army.

"We are investigating KLA activity during the armed conflict and it is not only the criminal responsibilities of low-level perpetrators but our mandate is always to look at the highest responsibility in the chain of command," she said on a visit to Pristina.

Dienstbier said the violence was "very organised" and warned that "all these atrocities, evictions and expulsions" were "the goal of Albanian extremists, not the revenge of ordinary people".

He warned that these extremists could "destabilise" the Albanian-populated regions of Presevo Valley in southeastern Serbia as well as Western Macedonia , thus provoking a "conflict that will be much broader than we had by now."

Dienstbier insisted that the UN administration mission in Kosovo"has not been able to achieve the goals of UN Security Council resolution" which had set terms for the end of the conflict there "because of the wrong policies of the international community."

Commenting on his recent row with the UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner, who had publicly called on him to "shut up", Dienstbier said: "Kouchner knows the same things that I know, that is why he is nervous".

He nevertheless expressed hope of meeting Kouchner in Brussels "next week."

Dienstbier spoke at the end of his three-day visit to Serbia , after a series of meetings with Serbian and Yugoslav government officials and individuals considered by the UN as "victims of human rights abuses".

He said he was "very disturbed" about the recent wave of repression against "opposition views" and media in Serbia .

"I told the representatives of the state that I am really very disturbed by the last developments of the situation here," Dienstbier said.

He warned against "criminalizing all the views" opposed to the official ones of the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic, noting a "growing tension" in the country, "proven by assassinations of even politicians and journalists."

"If it continues, if the opposition is put into underground, and if newspapers and radio stations are closed, it may create a very bad, explosive situation for people and for human rights", Dienstbier warned.

Dienstbier said he had told Yugoslav and Serbian officials that "it is very important to open a dialogue" with its opponents, and "not to treat them as criminals."

Milosevic´s regime regularly accuses opposition figures and independent media of being Western puppets aiming to overthrow the Yugoslav strongman.

Several opposition and independent media were recently shut down or fined under a repressive 1998 Information law, while many opposition members were victims of intimidation or police interrogation.