---------- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Oh, that nostalgia-crazed German political class. Can't get enough of the old memories. What's next? Dusting off the old uniforms and regalia in grandfather's attic? Digging out the 78 rpm records of the Horst Wessel Lied and Deutschland Uber Alles? A massive costume party at the newly restored Reichstag in Berlin? Could be billed as: Belgrade, The Right of Return. Plus ca change...] Friday June 1, 8:57 PM German parliament broadens Kosovo mandate BERLIN, June 1 (AFP) - The German parliament on Friday authorized German soldiers serving in the Balkans to operate in the demilitarized buffer zone separating Kosovo and southern Serbia, close to the Macedonian border. In addition to voting to broaden the area of operation for the German contingent in the multinational KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo, the Bundestag also voted to extend its mandate for a further year. As a result of the vote, some 5,000 German soldiers with KFOR will be able to bear arms within the five-kilometre-wide zone formerly held by ethnic Albanian rebels, but only for self-defence purposes. The government resolution to broaden and extend the mandate was adopted with the assent of 491 out of 598 deputies present, with the Free Democrats, the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism and a number of Greens party deputies voting against. The resolution for the first time also authorises the German armed forces with KFOR to carry out patrols from the air. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, of the Greens, said the KFOR presence remained essential for now, although he said the government in Belgrade was creating conditions that could help stabilise the region. Greens party defence spokeswoman Angelika Beer supported the government motion, saying there was otherwise the risk of a "vacuum" in Kosovo which would allow rebels of the so-called National Liberation Army, who are fighting against Macedonian government forces, to recruit there. But a group of seven Greens deputies said in a joint declaration that the problems of the region could not be solved by military means, that the region was still unstable and that the danger of war remained. "Despite the years, there still also exists no UN- or NATO-backed political concept of how peaceful co-existence with equal rights is now to be achieved in the region of the former Yugoslavia," the declaration said. Last week, ethnic Albanian rebels active in southern Serbia, thought to be linked to those fighting in Macedonia, agreed to disband and disarm, ending a 16-month armed campaign to wrest parts of southern Serbia from Belgrade's control and to annex them to neighbouring Kosovo. Yugoslav troops moved into the buffer zone on Thursday, leaving them at the administrative border with UN-run Kosovo and effectively putting an end to the existence of the zone. Germany has about 4,400 troops in Kosovo and 600 in Macedonia. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
