http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.420800811&par=0
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY) KOSOVO: NORWEGIAN DIPLOMAT DENIES ENCOURAGING SERBS TO EMIGRATE Bellgrade, 1 June (AKI) - A senior Norwegian diplomat in Belgrade has denied that his country was handing out immigrant visas to minority Serbs in breakaway Kosovo province and indirectly helping ethnic cleansing. "It is absolutely unfounded and untrue," Sverre Johan Kvale, minister counselor in the Norwegian embassy in Belgrade told Adnkronos International (AKI). He was asked to comment on the statement by Marko Jaksic, president of the Alliance of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo, who said on Thursday that Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, and even the US, convinced Kosovo minority Serbs to emigrate, in order to pave the way for Kosovo independence, demanded by majority ethnic Albanians. "There is no basis in reality for such claims, and we are not giving away visas to assist the remaining Serbs to leave," Kvale said. "On the contrary, we are doing everything to make them stay and to make life better for Serbs," he added. Jaksic and another Kosovo Serb leader Momcilo Trajkovic were quoted by Belgrade press on Thursday as saying that foreign emissaries were touring Kosovo Serb villages to lure young couples to leave, which amounted to "perfidious ethnic cleansing". Trajkovic said Western countries bombed Serbia in 1999, allegedly to preserve multi-ethnic society in Kosovo and now they were doing just the opposite. Jaksic said that up to 300 young Serb couples emigrated to Northern European countries last year. "If we know that every Serb in Kosovo is a voice against independence, it becomes clear what damages emigration does to the national interests of Serbs and Serbia," he said. Kvale said he was surprised by Jaksic's and Trajkovic's claims, because he had spoken to them on several occasions but they never raised the issue of Serb emigration. Reached by cell phone out of the office, Kvale couldn't specify how many immigrant visas were granted to Kosovo Serbs, but he said "very few indeed". Despite several attempts, no comments could be obtained from other embassies. Kosovo was put under United Nations control in 1999, following NATO raids, amid claims of gross human rights violations and mass exodus of ethnic Albanians. Some 220,000 Serbs have fled the province since then and the remaining 100,000 live in isolated enclaves. Western powers are pushing for Kosovo independence, which Serbia opposes though it has no authority there since 1999, and Belgrade's only hope to preserve Kosovo within its boundaries is that Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, might use veto to block the independence move. (Vpr/Aki) Jun-01-07 10:53
