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PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Serbia's top official for Kosovo on Sunday blasted U.N. plans to transform the Kosovo Liberation Army into a lightly armed, emergency corps instead of disbanding it.
A senior Yugoslav general also criticized the plan, accusing NATO of arming the former guerrillas under the guise of demilitarization.
The comments came a week before the Sept. 19 deadline for the KLA to lay down its arms.
U.N. and NATO officials say transformation of the KLA will help bring peace and stability to Kosovo because senior KLA figures have expressed strong opposition to completely disbanding their organization, which fought against Yugoslav army troops and Serbian police during the 18-month conflict in the conflict.
Serbian leaders say that would perpetuate the KLA as a military organization. Russia, Serbia's ally, has signaled it will oppose the plan in the U.N. Security Council.
In comments carried by Yugoslavia's state-run Tanjug news agency, Kosovo's Serb governor, Zoran Andjelkovic, said that allowing ``some members of the terrorist KLA into a civilian force in Kosovo would be a direct violation of the U.N. resolution,'' under which the NATO-led peacekeepers deployed in the province.
Andjelkovic, who has been effectively stripped of authority since the pullout of Serb forces and the arrival of approximately 40,000 NATO-led peacekeepers, also said that 240,000 people, mostly non-Albanians, have fled Kosovo over the last three months.
Earlier this week, the chief U.N. official for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, said that 130,000 Serbs have fled while 97,000 remain in the province.
There has been no official figure for others, primarily Gypsies, who have left Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians consider Gypsies, or Roma, to be Serb allies.
Joining the criticism of the KLA's new role, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, the Yugoslav army general formerly in charge of Serb troops in Kosovo, claimed that the KLA is acquiring new, powerful weapons instead of disarming.
Lazarevic, cited by B2-92 radio, called international assurances that the KLA would be disarmed by Sept. 19 ``cynical,'' arguing that, the group has returned some ``antiquated'' weapons, but has obtained ``new, heavy weaponry'' under the guidance of NATO.