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MOSCOW, Sept. 22 (UPI) Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a sharply worded statement today condemning the transformation of the Kosovo Liberation Army into a civilian corps.
The Foreign Ministry called the decision a "thoughtless political act (that) goes against the letter and spirit" of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for demilitarization of the KLA.
The statement said Moscow is "concerned" by "attempts to legalize some military units in Kosovo" and warned that Russia would be "unable to take responsibility for possible negative consequences" of the creation of the Kosovo Protection Corps.
Under an agreement signed on Monday by NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark, a 5,000-member strong civilian corps is being formed in Kosovo, ostensibly to serve as a peacetime disaster relief agency, performing exclusively humanitarian missions.
The agreement calls for the storage of 2,000 weapons to be used by corps members.
Moscow believes the agreement preserves the KLA rather than disarming it, and gives the army a new name, a move that is "extremely dangerous and inadmissible."
"Who will (the corps) defend and against whom, if (these forces) consist 100 percent of former KLA fighters," the Foreign Ministry asked.
Bernard Kouchner, the U.N. administrator in charge of Kosovo affairs, defended the move to allow KLA forces access to weapons.
He said, "Demilitarization is not necessarily accomplished by collections, (it) is accomplished through transformation."
Serb officials in Mitrovica have denounced the creation of the corps based on KLA units as a provocation and have called for countermoves to create a Serbian National Guard in Kosovo to protect areas with a majority ethnic Serb population.