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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 11 (UPI) - The special U.N. envoy to Kosovo, Bernhard Kouchner, has reacted angrily to suggestions that he may not be being fair in his treatment of the province's ethnic Serb population.
Speaking to reporters today after a meeting with the Security Council, Kouchner rejected accusations made by the Yugoslav government about an alleged unfairness of the Mission toward the Serb population in the area.
When a Serbian journalist asked him about reports of of killings and ethnic Serbs fleeing Kosovo, Kouchner snapped back: "I don't accept that. I am always concerned and, in the Security Council, I spent 15 minutes talking about the (Serb) people and to talk about security. You were not there."
Pressed further on the issue, the U.N. official snapped: "Don't insult me, please. I have always mentioned this and it is my first concern, and I told you about the hours I've spent to get the new initiatives to protect the Serbs."
The Kosovo Transitional Council, recently formed as an interim government, has worked with Kouchner in elaborating a so-called "new strategy" to protect the Serbs living in Kosovo.
Kouchner admitted he has had frequent clashes "with the U.N. bureaucracy in New York" because of his rapid handling of the establishment of an autonomous government under Security Council resolutions.
During a recent visit to the region, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Richard Holbrooke, reportedly had urged Kouchner to disregard objections from U.N. headquarters and apply a "hands on" policy in Kosovo.
"We have to be quick and at the same time, respectful of the U.N. administration," he said. "But we have to be quick enough to reestablish good (living) conditions for the peoples of Kosovo - all of them."
The government of Slobodan Milosevic has accused Kouchner of protecting only the ethnic Albanian Kosovar population, and for establishing a customs system that creates what Milosevic has called a "cantonization" of Kosovo, a completely autonomous government within Yugoslavia.
The U.N. envoy said he is only abiding by a Security Council resolution that called for the establishment of "a substantial autonomy" in Kosovo after the cessation of the NATO bombing campaign.