-Caveat Lector- Team Finds Less Damage in Kosovo By MARTIN CRUTSINGER .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The first World Bank team to assess reconstruction needs in Kosovo found significantly less damage to homes, power plants and roads than earlier thought. And even in heavily damaged areas, bank official Rory O'Sullivan said Monday, many villages have quickly returned to near normal operations. ``Electricity is operating in most places. ... Telephone systems are working, many water supply systems are working. Road access is pretty widespread throughout Kosovo,'' O'Sullivan said. ``You see farmers at work. You see tractors on the streets.'' He said major damage, from looting and vandalism by Serb forces before they withdrew and from the 78-day NATO bombing campaign, was confined to the province's western part. The eastern sections escaped relatively unscathed, O'Sullivan said. O'Sullivan and other World Bank officials spoke to reporters on the eve of the first meeting of a coordinating group composed of finance ministers from the world's seven largest economies and representatives from the 15-nation European Union, the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Clinton administration, represented at Tuesday's discussions in Brussels, Belgium, by new Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, has said Europe should bear the bulk of reconstruction costs. The United States shouldered a bigger share of the burden in NATO's campaign of airstrikes to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevec to withdraw his forces from Kosovo. On Monday in Brussels, however, German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said aid coming from Europe should not threaten the continent's commitment to budget austerity. That is a key plank in its effort to defend the value of the euro, the joint currency launched this year by 11 European nations. Asked about earlier estimates that Europe was willing to spend around $493 million annually on reconstructing Kosovo, Eichel said that, pending a more formal assessment of needs, ``there are no serious official numbers.'' O'Sullivan told reporters in Washington that given his initial assessment of lesser damage to the region's roads and other infrastructure, he would put reconstruction needs at the ``lower end of the spectrum of estimates.'' Previous reports put a price tag of between $3 billion and $5 billion on reconstruction needs in Kosovo over a three-year period. O'Sullivan said a more specific assessment could not be made until completion of the World Bank's initial damage survey by the end of this month, in time for the first donors' conference on July 28 in Brussels. By comparison to the $3 billion to $5 billion initial estimate for rebuilding Kosovo, the estimate for rebuilding nearby Bosnia has been put at $5 billion over three to four years. Pledges from wealthy donor countries and the international lending agencies now cover about three-fourths of that. While the infrastructure damage in Kosovo is not so great as originally feared, officials said that in some ways the job in Kosovo will be even bigger than in Bosnia because Kosovo has nothing resembling a functioning government with a budget. ``The real crisis is there is no budget in the country,'' O'Sullivan said. ``There is no money to pay to keep the electricity operating, the coal mines operating, the water systems operating.'' He said much of the international assistance that is raised will go to paying the salaries of doctors, teachers and municipal workers to keep essential services operating. The World Bank, which has pledged about $60 million for Kosovo relief over 18 months, said it would send a team back into the areas this week for further on-site inspections. Its initial assessment of lighter damage supported views expressed by the United Nations and other international agencies. In a report released last week, damage to housing and water resources was labeled as severe in only 141 of Kosovo's approximately 2,000 villages. The U.N. report said 35 percent of the homes in Kosovo were damaged, but only a small percentage were destroyed. World Bank officials said returning Kosovo Albanian refugees are not waiting for international relief to help in the rebuilding of their homes but are picking through rubble for useable roof tiles and other building materials. President Clinton and other leaders decided at their annual economic summit last month in Germany to help rebuild Kosovo but to limit assistance to Serbia to humanitarian aid as long as Milosevic remains in power. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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