Kosovo Serbs recruit ex-soldiers for defence

MITROVICA, Serbia, June 20 (Reuters) Serbs in northern Kosovo have recruited hundreds of former Yugoslav army soldiers to defend them from attacks by ethnic Albanians pushing for independence for the province, Serb officials said today.

It is the latest sign of resistance among the Serb minority in the United Nations-run province to the drive for independence by the two million ethnic Albanian majority. UN-led talks look likely to give Kosovo some form of independence before year-end.

Officials in the north, home to 50,000 Serbs, said 385 former Yugoslav reservists had been employed by municipalities to ''organise defence in the event of extremist violence.'' ''We have been forced into such a move because of police ineffectiveness, and the cover-up of crimes and their perpetrators,'' Zvecan mayor Dragisa Milovic told Reuters.

Officially, the ''Civil Defence Service'' will not be armed.

The north, adjacent to central Serbia, cut ties last month with Albanian authorities in the capital -- a move some analysts said was a precursor to a Serb bid to partition the province.

The Serb police and army, then the Yugoslav army under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, were forced from Kosovo in 1999 when NATO bombed to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.

Around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks.

The 100,000 who stayed live on the margins of society.

Kosovo's outgoing UN governor, Soren Jessen-Petersen, will tell the UN Security Council today that Kosovo Albanian leaders have made strides in improving the rights and security of the remaining Serbs -- something UN and Western diplomats say is key to clinching independence.

The Serbs say this is a lie and blame a recent spate of violence on Albanians bent on driving them out.

Jessen-Petersen, in a report seen in advance by Reuters, will say the rate of ethnically-motivated crime is falling.

Direct talks on Kosovo's fate began in February in Vienna under U.N. mediation. The crunch issue of status should be on the table in late July, with Western powers determined to end seven years of limbo in Kosovo by the end of the year.

Diplomats say the West favours independence, but fear a bid by Serbs in the north to partition Kosovo, a move seen certain to spark Albanian retaliation and force thousands to flee.

The UN has contingency plans for the exodus of 50,000 Serbs if Kosovo splits from Serbia. The 17,000-strong NATO peace force said this month it would bolster mobile units in the north by reopening a military base there.

REUTERS MP PM2034