Summary: Progress Made in Kosovo in 2003
Christian Millotat
Since 1999 37,000 men and women of the socalled Kosovo Force (KFOR) from 38 nations, half of them NATO members, have been working side by side with the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) to implement UN Resolution No. 1244, i.e. to create a secure environment, into which refugees and displaced persons can return, where an interim administration can be put into place, and humanitarian assistance can be provided. Due to the fact, however, that up to now the international community has failed to formulate a final political goal of the mission many questions concerning Kosovo have to remain open.
As Deputy Force Commander of KFOR the author was primarily responsible for the contacts with the UNMIK-Administration, the cooperation with the Government of Kosovo, and KFOR structure planning. During his tour of duty with KFOR 6 the multinational NATO staff HQ was for the first time replaced by a socalled Composite HQ.
First and foremost the multinational KFOR brigades acting more or less independently of each other had to be turned into an effective command and control asset, which was to be achieved by streamlining and optimizing KFOR’s structure.
In the future the borders to Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia are to be surveyed by a multinational brigade each, and a 2,500-strong task force is to be employable within two hours within the entire area of Kosovo. As part of the new multinational German-Italian Brigade Southwest German soldiers will continue to have the opportunity to deal with the special aspects of international peace support operations.
Since he assumed office as envoy of the UN Secretary General, Ambassador Michael Steiner has been able to improve the cooperation between the UNMIK-Administration and KFOR, which was not always without friction. However he is getting increasingly under pressure, as many problems are still unsolved and progress is slow.
Millotat sees it as his merit that the French-German command and control tandem that he had advocated is functioning very well and has facilitated important structural reforms resulting in substantial reductions. Of equal importance he rates the principle of true multinationality he was able to push through as well as KFOR’s reconsideration of its original military tasks, which had become increasingly hard to fulfil, having had to assume more and more of the civilian agenda of the UNMIK-Administration which had been hampered by an unfortunate personnel policy.
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