A Frenchman is to take over this week as head of the KFOR multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo for the first time.
General Marcel Valentin, 55, who will take over the 42,000-strong NATO-led force on Wednesday, will take over from Norwegian general Thorstein Skiaker for one year.
"It's in recognition of the efforts made by France who, alongside her allies, has for the past 10 years kept a force representing twelve percent of the total strength in the Balkans," Valentin told a news conference last week.
He said it was also recognition of "our capacity to command such a military force."
NATO's Supreme Allied commander in Europe (SACEUR) Joseph Ralston is due to attend the handover.
Valentin said it "was not at all in the interest of the United States to reduce its troops in the Balkans," in response to comments made by US joint Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz last Wednesday.
Wolfowitz had spoken of a possible reduction of US troops in the Balkans.
"For the moment, and as far as I know, and I hope I won't be the last to be informed, there's no question of a US retreat from Kosovo," the new KFOR commander said.
The United States supplies 7,000 men to KFOR, the largest contingent of troops out of the 19 NATO countries and twenty others that also provide contingents.
KFOR's mission, which began in June 1999, is to establish and maintain a safe environment in Kosovo, after the conflict prompted by the crackdown by former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in 1998-99 in the mainly ethnic Albanian populated province of Serbia.
It is particularly concerned with assuring public order, controlling and, if necessary, imposing the province's demilitarization, and offering assistance to the UN administration in Kosovo (MINUK).
General Valentin said that KFOR's strenth would be increased by around 2,000 troops for general elections on November 17 -- PARIS (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
