HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------UN governor urges Serbs to join new Kosovo cabinet
BELGRADE, April 3 (Reuters) - The U.N.'s Kosovo governor tried in talks with Yugoslav leaders on Wednesday to break a deadlock and persuade minority Serbs to join the province's new government.
"I would urge them (Kosovo Serb leaders) in the interest of Serbs to join this common endeavour, to join the government," Michael Steiner told a news conference after talks with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and other senior officials.
"We need to get the work going and we need to get the work going, of course, with the participation of the Serbs," said the German diplomat, in Belgrade for the first time since he took up his post in February.
He said it was not in his powers to set up a ministry for refugee returns, as Kosovo's beleaguered Serbs have demanded, but instead proposed the creation of two senior posts dealing with the issue which would be held by Serbs.
"I think these are far-reaching proposals which will underline that return is one of our priorities," he said.
Kosovo's new institutions, set up after a general election in November, are to take over substantial powers on issues from the economy to health care while the U.N. administration which has run Kosovo since June 1999 retains overall control.
In early March, the fledgling assembly elected veteran ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova as president of the southern Yugoslav province as well as a new 10-member cabinet, with the agriculture minister post reserved for a Serb.
But Kosovo's Serb community has so far refused to put forward a name, insisting also on a ministry for returns.
They want it to work for the return of roughly 180,000 Serbs who fled after NATO's 1999 bombing campaign in fear of revenge attacks by majority Albanians angry at years of Serb repression.
Steiner stressed that the issue of returns would continue to be the responsibility of the international community.
To ensure Serb involvement, however, he said he had proposed that a Serb would become a coordinator on returns within the government. In addition, a Serb would be appointed senior adviser on the issue within Steiner's office.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic, Belgrade's point man for Kosovo, said only 150 Serbs and other non-Albanians had returned to Kosovo in three years.
"What we are interested in is results and to change the figures in terms of returns," he told reporters.
The two sides also signed an agreement paving the way for Serbs held in Kosovo jails to serve their sentences in Serbia proper. About 37 Serb prisoners are currently held in Kosovo.
11:54 04-03-02
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