Posted on 03/20/2008 2:12:47 PM PDT by kronos77
Kiev - A senior official in Kiev blamed poor rules of engagement given United Nations peacekeepers for the death of a Ukrainian policemen in Kosovo, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday. Yury Lutsenko, Ukraine's Interior Minister, said strict UN rules forbidding international force members to use their weapons in almost all circumstances caused the Sunday death of police senior lieutenant Ihor Kinal.
"This is absolutely unacceptable, and it will lead to further loss of Ukrainian lives," Lutsenko said. "This policy (of making it impossible for Ukrainian service personnel to defend themselves) cannot be allowed to continue.
Kinal died in the Kosovo city Mitrovica on March 17 after he and his unit were attacked by ethnic Serbs throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. Ukrainian news reports described his injuries as "life-threatening fragmentation wounds."
More than 100 people, including as many as 33 foreign peacekeepers were injured in six hours of rioting in the city, begun when a mob stormed a courthouse guarded by KFOR and UN police.
A second peacekeeper, also a Ukrainian, was seriously injured and sent home for hospital treatment. Another seven Ukrainians were being treated in Mitrovica hospitals, according to the report.
The Serbian activists during six hours of rioting also used fire arms and hand grenades against some peacekeepers, according to a KFOR spokesman.
Lutsenko rejected a UN statement made shortly after the incidents noting peacekeepers are allowed to use their weapons in self-defence.
A locally-imposed standing order among KFOR and UN peacekeepers authorise the use of weapons in self defence "only after the first injury," Lutsenko claimed.
The UN's allegedly poor rules of engagement make necessary the transfer of Ukrainian peacekeepers in Kosovo from UN to KFOR command, Lutsenko said.
"We really need to take a serious look at how much sense it makes for (Ukrainian troops) to remain under UN command," he said. "A transfer to (KFOR command) would improve their safety."
Ukraine currently maintains 187 peacekeepers in Kosovo. Kinal was the first-ever to die since the former Soviet republic began contributing soldiers to peacekeeping operations in 1994.
ping
No, the problem was UNMIK's failure to uphold UN Resolution 1244. especially Annex 2, item 6 which allows for the return of Serbian personnel to act as liaison with international civil and security presence.
UNpolitics at work.
Sounds like Spain may pull out of the mission:
Spain should terminate its participation in the KFOR mission, said on Wednesday the influential Spanish El Mundo daily, which also said that the majority of Spaniards were urging their country’s withdrawal.
Judging by a survey made public in the daily, 85 percent of Spaniards are in favor of the withdrawal of Spanish troops from southern Serbian province of Kosovo.
KFOR—From Peacekeepers to Occupiers
“Since the authorities in Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, KFOR’s task has completely changed,” El Mundo said.
“The mission at this moment has no legal basis. It was initially envisaged that KFOR would be a peacekeeping mission in the region, and there was no plan for it to become an occupation force that should subjugate the Serbian minority to the ethnic Albanian majority and to a policy of fait accompli,” the daily said.
Spain has over 100 troops in Kosovo-Metohia province as part of NATO’s contingent. The Pristina separatists announced independence unilaterally, which has been recognized by some European countries, but not by others, among which Spain remains firm in refusing to legitimize Washington-imposed dismemberment of sovereign UN member state.
Lutsenko is taking this opportunity to dump the useless UN and further Ukrainian cooperation with NATO, helping Ukraine’s case for NATO membership.
Pull out Ukraine. Georgia is going to soon.
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