Kosovo Serbs: U.N. plan forms new Albania

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro, April 19 (UPI) — Kosovo Serbs claim a U.N. plan would displace minority Serbs from Kosovo and form a new state of Albania.

Two representatives of Kosovo Serbs Wednesday said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Health Organization are allegedly preparing to displace 40,000 Serbs from Kosovo to Serbia proper, once the Kosovo future status is decided.

UNHCR officials in Belgrade rejected the allegations, the Beta news agency said.

Kosovo Serb Marko Jaksic told a news conference in Belgrade that Serbs, if forced to leave Kosovo, would not move to Serbia but would seek visas to settle in Western European countries.

Jaksic said the plan to move Serbs out of Kosovo is aimed at forming another Albanian state. Ethnic Albanians publicly say they want Kosovo independent from Belgrade.

Formally, Kosovo is part of Serbia but it has been governed by the U.N. mission since 1999, when NATO air attacks drove out Serbian troops.

Serbs and ethnic Albanians, who make 90 percent of Kosovo’s population, have been conducting U.N.-mediated talks to decide who will rule the province once NATO and the U.N. mission leave.

Europe Prepares to Evacuate 40,000 Kosovo Serbs

 18 April 2006 | 17:12 | FOCUS News Agency

Podgoritca. Chair of Serbian National Council for Central Kosovo Rada Trajkovic revealed that WHO and UN Refugee Agency are preparing project for evacuation of 40,000 Serbs who are expected to leave Kosovo after it receives its independence. The project is in its final stage and crisis headquarters that will receive Serbs who would leave Kosovo are being set up, Montenegrin newspaper Dan reads today.

Trajkovic expressed her regret the World Trade [sic] [Health] Organization participates in a project for moving Serbians from Kosovo. “I am waiting for official reaction from Belgrade because instead of creating an environment to keep the Serbs in Kosovo there is a project that proposes leaving it,” Trajkovic noted.