Border violence mars Kosovo's new start

By Matt Robinson

PRISTINA (Reuters) - U.N. police pulled out of a Kosovan border post that was destroyed on Tuesday by Serbs who vow never to submit to the authority of Kosovo's Albanian government and its Western backers.

Danish troops of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force later moved up to secure the border with Serbia proper, KFOR said. It did not say if they were controlling entry to Kosovo.

Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci played down the attacks on two border posts in the north, one of which was burned out.

"Everything is under the control of the NATO authorities, Kosovo police and the United Nations, and no isolated incident will undermine Kosovo's independence celebrations," he told a news conference with EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana.

"Kosovo is integral, inseparable and Kosovo territory is guaranteed and recognized internationally," said Thaci, who declared the southern Serbian province independent on Sunday despite Serbia's adamant opposition.

Reuters witnesses saw U.N. police destroy official documents and remove computers from the half-wrecked border post, then leave in a convoy of vehicles escorted by armored cars.

The crossing known as Gate 3-1, north of Zubin Potok town, was abandoned. Cars wit no number plates were passing unimpeded.

A U.N. source who checked later said he saw only one jeep with two Estonian soldiers on the actual border.

ENFORCEMENT

Asked if the European Union would be ready to call on NATO to enforce the authority of its planned post-independence law-enforcement mission in Kosovo, including the northern Serb stronghold, Solana said the 2,000-man mission was not there yet.

"Don't ask for the mission to do something today they are not in a position to do," he said. "I would like to say that it will be deployed in the territory of Kosovo, in all of Kosovo."

"KFOR is here and KFOR has used its responsibility, its obligations, already today," Solana added.

The NATO-led, 35-nation force of 17,000 troops has French, Belgian, U.S. and Danish soldiers deployed in the north.

The border post vandalism highlighted the challenge facing a EU as its moves in to take over from the United Nations the task of supervising Kosovo.

Until 1999, this was an unmarked Serbian provincial border. Until last week, it was a U.N.-supervised crossing. Now it is an international frontier, at least for states recognizing Kosovo.