The United Nations administration in Kosovo has begun recruiting Kosovans for a new police force amid growing criticism that it is taking too long to assume policing and judicial tasks from KFOR peacekeepers, reports the Financial Times . The US military in particular has been sharp in its attacks on the UN for delays, but the UN response is that member states have been slow to deploy the promised contingents of more than 3,000 international police to Kosovo. Only some 150 have arrived. Meanwhile there is mounting concern among humanitarian agencies about rising levels of lawlessness, murder and violent crime in Kosovo. Jonathan Steele in the Guardian says western governments are paying lip service to the UN while preferring, for publicity reasons, to give their money directly to projects in Kosovo.
Some agencies prefer reconstruction to relief.
AFP adds a diplomat yesterday said NATO intends to change its functions from Kosovo refugee aid to protecting lines of communication. Mitrovica has witnesses a number of confrontations on the bridge that divides Serbs from Albanians. French KFOR troops in charge of the area are requesting patience from ethnic Albanians living in poor conditions just minutes from the homes they were expelled from. Some 2,000 families are rumoured to be waiting to go back. But legal headaches loom as people will claim homes occupied by others.