NATO sends 600 soldiers to Kosovo for rehearsal

15/03/2007

Six hundred German soldiers will arrive in Kosovo by the end of this week to take part in a planned rehearsal, KFOR said on Wednesday, stressing that the operation was not in anticipation of a change in the situation on the ground.

(Reuters - 15/03/07; AP, DPA, KFOR, Beta, B92, UPI, Makfax, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network - 14/03/07)

NATO is sending an additional 600 German soldiers to Kosovo. [Getty Images]

A 600-strong German battalion assigned to NATO will deploy to Kosovo by the end of this week to take part in regular operational exercises, KFOR announced on Wednesday (March 14th).

One of the purposes of the rehearsal, scheduled last autumn, is to familiarise NATO troops and Reserves with the environment on the ground. It is part of a series of operational rehearsals, dubbed Determined Effort 2007, planned for this year. The first exercises under this programme, again involving German reserve troops, took place in Kosovo from September to December 2006, KFOR explained in a statement.

The announcement came days before UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari is due to submit his proposal for a settlement to the Kosovo status issue to the Security Council, which is then expected to decide on the province's future later this year.

The proposed solution includes granting internationally supervised statehood to Kosovo, which, although technically still part of Serbia, has been a de facto UN protectorate since the end of the 1998-1999 conflict. The plan also envisions broad rights for the approximately 100,000 Kosovo Serbs living in the province.

Serbia, which insists on retaining some sovereignty over Kosovo, is firmly opposed to the proposed settlement. Although it does not provide for the outright independence their community has been demanding, the Kosovo Albanian leaders have accepted Ahtisaari's blueprint.

KFOR stressed on Wednesday that the upcoming rehearsal was "not in response to, or in preparation for, any current situation either on-going or expected" on the ground.

Tasked with establishing and maintaining security in Kosovo, NATO peacekeepers entered the province in June 1999. KFOR currently numbers some 16,500 troops from 36 nations, including 24 NATO member states. Germany has a 2,700-strong contingent stationed in Kosovo.

During the past eight years, the Alliance has conducted a number of different operational exercises in the province.

"Like those … this rehearsal sends a renewed clear message of NATO's and the international community's strong resolve and commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the overall Balkans region," KFOR said on Wednesday. "It also demonstrates NATO's ability to reinforce already in-theatre NATO-led forces at very short notice with so-called Reserve Forces."