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PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - NATO and international agencies running Kosovo said Wednesday they had begun transforming Kosovo rebels into a civilian "Kosovo Corps."
The announcement came in the form of a statement from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which said it was distributing informational materials about how to enlist in the new corps at 49 assembly sites of the former rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
"A historic step has just been taken in the transformation of the Kosovo Liberation Army," the IOM said. "A Kosovo Corps is being formed as a civilian and humanitarian force."
The announcement, ahead of a Sunday deadline for the KLA to disarm and demobilize, appeared designed to undercut mounting criticism from Serbia that the KLA would remain under arms.
At the same time it quashed any hopes ethnic Albanians may have had that they could have an armed provincial defense force.
"This will not be a defense force. It will certainly not be an army," Major Ole Irgens, a spokesman for the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo, told a news briefing.
He said no more than 200 members of the corps would be permitted to bear sidearms, and these only for guarding its operational sites and for bodyguards protecting its leaders.
KLA YET TO AGREE TO NEW ROLE
The IOM said it would begin interviewing prospective members of the corps Monday.
"The Corps will be mobilized throughout Kosovo to assist in ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts and will also be trained to rapidly react to natural disasters and other emergencies," the IOM statement said.
The KLA, in a statement issued by the office of its military commander General Agim Ceku, said it was aware of the steps but noted that a final agreement on the next phase of the transformation of the KLA was not due to be signed until Monday.
"The demobilization will be step by step and the proposal from the IOM is one of the proposals that is under discussion," the statement said.
"Nothing is yet final," it added.
Various proposals have been aired in the local press for a Kosovo Corps that would have up to 15,000 members and some role in protecting Kosovo in the event of renewed attacks on ethnic Albanians by Serb forces, who left the province in June under terms of the peace deal to end the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
DESPITE NATO BAN, KLA STILL IN UNIFORM
But Western officials, among them NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark, who visited Kosovo Monday, have said there is little room for maneuver on the size of the Kosovo Corps and have asserted it will have no military or defense role.
Meanwhile, hundreds of KLA fighters, effectively defying NATO rules for them not to wear uniforms in public, paraded in the streets of the northern town of Podujevo to celebrate the anniversary of the first battle in the local district against Serb forces.
A crowd of as many as 10,000 people cheered as the fighters gathered in the stadium of the town 30 km northwest of Pristina.
"Such parades should be organized more often, I like KLA soldiers a lot," said Arjeta Xhemaili, 12, who was one of the many children who turned out for the parade.