Germans at the helm as Kosovo choice nears

PRISTINA, Serbia, Sep 1 (Reuters) NATO warned today that it would not tolerate any resort to violence as a decision approaches on whether the U.N.-run province of Kosovo gets the independence from Serbia that its Albanian majority seeks.

''I want to reiterate that during this period we will not tolerate violence in any form ... as NATO representatives we must not tolerate any threat to safety, any threat to security,'' said U.S. Admiral Harry Ulrich of NATO's southern command.

He was speaking at the headquarters of the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping mission, KFOR, in the capital Pristina during a ceremony to hand over command of the 16,000-strong force to Germany's General Roland Kather.

Kather's appointment puts Germans in the three top positions in Kosovo in what is expected to be a critical period leading up to a decision that could mean its amputation from Serbia against the will of Belgrade.

Kather takes over from Italian general Giuseppe Valotto. He is the 11th commander of KFOR since NATO deployed in Kosovo in mid-1999, after 11 weeks of bombing to end what the alliance said was an indiscriminate and brutal crackdown by Serb troops fighting Albanian insurgents.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations ever since. Serbia opposes the secession of its province, offering the 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority wide autonomy instead. Western diplomats say independence by 2007 is the likeliest outcome.

GERMAN TRIO German Minister of Defence Franz-Josef Jung and his Italian counterpart Arturo Parisi attended the handover, along with Kosovo's new U.N. administrator Joachim Ruecker, also a German.

A German diplomat, Werner Wnendt (sic), also heads the Kosovo mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe which plays a central role alongside the United Nations in the affairs of the province.

Asked about NATO's future role in Kosovo after final status is decided by the U.N., Ulrich said it was uncertain.

''We need to have the final status determined, announced and accepted before we can make decisions such you asked. We are clearly thinking about that but no decision has been made yet,'' he said.

NATO has re-opened a mothballed based in the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo, in case of violence aimed at promoting partition -- which the West has said it will not tolerate.

Kather, a 57-year-old career officer who commanded a brigade in Kosovo six years ago, said he was ''feeling a little bit back home again''.

''We will do everything what we can to provide for a good future for this country and so I have set our motto for this which is 'Shaping the Future'.'' ''I don't see any obstacles in the way and if there are we'll push them away, of that you can be sure.'' The U.N. expects to get out of Kosovo in 2007 and hand over a supervisory role to the European Union, which would pick up the task of ensuring that the Albanians keeps their pledge to honour the rights of minority Serbs.

''The Kosovars are a good people who suffered greatly,'' said outgoing Italian general Valotto.

''From these sufferings they have to find the energy to look to the future, leave the past behind and build a better way, above all for the good of their children who are the most precious resource within Kosovo and who have the right to live in a peaceful and European Kosovo,'' Valotto said.

REUTERS BDP PC1807