KOSOVO: PRISTINA: NATO'S WESLEY CLARK'S LAST VISIT

submitted by europelmbh on 03/10/16 1

English/Nat General Wesley Clark has paid a farewell visit to Kosovo before he leaves office later this week. In Pristina, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe bid farewell to the local and international leaders he's worked with over the past year in an effort to end violence in the province. Wesley Clark took a final walk down the provincial capital's main street on Monday. The people of Pristina had turned out in droves to bid the outgoing commander farewell - in scenes reminiscent of only several months ago. Then, Clark received a hero's welcome after NATO's bombing campaign forced Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo and opened the way for an international presence. Still, full peace has not been achieved. Since the NATO-led peacekeepers and the U-N mission arrived in June, an estimated 100-thousand Serbs have fled the province. Their exodus a result of a rash of revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians seeking to get even for the crackdown ordered by Milosevic and ended by the NATO air strikes. To a lesser extent, ethnic Albanians also have been targeted by Serbs. Before his walkabout, Clark had held talks with local political leaders, including Hashim Thaci and Ibrahim Rugova. Afterwards, he said it was his - and NATO's - aim to make Kosovo a truly multi-ethnic society. SOUNDBITE: (English) "That's was what the fighting about, that it was not going to be a purely Serb place, it is not going to be purely Albanian place. It is going to be multi-ethnic in the future. People have to have tolerates, have to move out of the past, out of the 19th century, and have to move to the 21st century. It is my message to you." SUPERCAPTION: General Wesley Clark, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe But Clark acknowledged a that lot of hard work was in store to achieve this goal. SOUNDBITE: (English) "And my general impression of the whole area is, it is very impoverished, it is very much suffering from urban stressed environment, it is very clear, it needs a lot of love and attention, starting with tolerance, from people from both sides, getting along with each other and then getting ahead developing political institutions and the economy so people don't have to sit around places like the Dolce Vita cafe in the middle of the day." SUPER CAPTION: General Wesley Clark, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe Also on Monday, Clark visited the ethnically divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica, where he crossed for the first time into the northern, Serb-controlled side of the city. Clark is being succeeded as NATO commander by Air Force General Joseph Ralston. You can license this story through AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/a05f528f323c2824a4463f5a67e3e4a9 Find out more about AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

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