Pristina, 13 October 1999 (RFE/RL) - UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan begins a two-day visit to Kosovo today -- his first trip to the
province since the UN began running Kosovo in June. Annan plans to meet leaders of Kosovo's minority Serbs and majority ethnic Albanians, as well as Bernard Kouchner, the UN's civilian representative in Kosovo, and German General Klaus Reinhardt, the commander of NATO-led peacekeepers. Security is expected to be extremely high in the wake of Monday's killing of UN staffer Valentin Krumov. The Bulgarian national was shot on the main street of the capital, Pristina, after arriving for duty earlier in the day.
In Sarajevo yesterday, Annan appealed for tolerance and reconciliation in Kosovo. Kouchner called the UN staffer's killing "unspeakable, barbaric, and disgusting."