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KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Oct 4 (AFP) - A breakdown in communications between Kosovo's Serbs, ethnic Albanians and international peacekeepers has endangered peace efforts in the volatile north of the province, the outgoing French commander of NATO-led forces in the area said.
In an interview with AFP, General Bruno Cuche recalled that some basic public services managed to get off to a multi-ethnic start after NATO-led peacekeepers deployed in Kosovo in June as the troubled province was put under UN administration.
"But today, these modest results are deteriorating because of a Serb hardening, which probably stems from a breakdown in dialogue" that followed the resignation of two Serb members from a local transitional council last month, he said.
"To deal with brainwashing (and) manipulation by way of rumors, it is urgent that we reestablish a dialogue with the Serb community in order to better understand their concerns and demands and to better inform them," he said.
The transitional council was set up by UN Kosovo administrator Bernard Kouchner to bring to the same table Kosovar leaders from all major political and ethnic groups to assist him in developing a democratic civil society in the province.
But Kosovo Serbs are boycotting the council, asserting that the United Nations and KFOR have failed to protect the estimated 70,000 Serbs still living in Kosovo since Yugoslavia was forced to withdraw its troops from the province by a NATO bombing campaign.
In Cuche's area of command, code-named MNB North, the main city of Kosovska Mitrovica remains bitterly split into ethnic Albanian and Serb districts, with French troops and armored vehicles positioned in the middle to head off violence.
Last week saw a major setback when Kosovo Albanian doctors and nurses, citing security concerns, abandoned the local hospital, which up until they had been shared with Serbs. They took their Albanian patients with them.
Kosovo-wide, two out of three Serbs have fled the province, fearing retribution at the hands of the ethnic Albanian majority a decade after Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic revoked Kosovo's autonomy.
By Kouchner's estimate, about 170 Serbs have died violently since June. Last Tuesday two Serbs were killed and 47 injured in a grenade attack on a village market near Kosovo Poleje, outside Pristina.
Despite the constant tension, Cuche said that security in MNB North was "statistically one of the best in Kosovo," a fact that he credited to the blend of French soldiers and gendarmes under his command.
He said he "always formally denied" accusations that the French army was biased towards Serbs, arguing that his brigade "has no preference for one community or another, even if historical references would lead one to believe so."
"We carry out our mission in a balanced way, both in the area of security and in civilian-military actions," he said.
Cuche, who is soon to hand over command to General Henri Poncet, commander of France's 11th parachute brigade, also played down claims of Franco-British rivalry when NATO forces first rolled into the province from Macedonia.
While the British moved up the main highway linking Macedonia's capital Skopje with Kosovo's main city of Pristina, the French took a detour via Serbia and entered Kosovo from the east.
Some suspected that was because the French did not want to be seen entering behind another army, but Cuche said: "It was indispensible that we deploy in tandem with our allies, and not behind them."