Disband KLA, says Moscow envoy

Russia's special Kosovo envoy, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, said yesterday that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) should be "entirely…

Russia's special Kosovo envoy, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, said yesterday that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) should be "entirely disarmed, then disbanded", the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

Mr Chernomyrdin made the comment before leaving Moscow for Strasbourg, where he will take part in a meeting of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.

Earlier in Belgrade, the Yugoslav state news agency Tanjug reported that bodies of six Kosovo Serbs, reportedly kidnapped last week by the KLA, were yesterday found "massacred".

The bodies of Mr Slobodan Pavlovic and his son, Nenad, Mr Momcilo Dimic, Mr Dimitrije Milenkovic, Mr Alexandar Milenkovic and Mr Dejan Prokic were found in a village near Obilic, the agency said.

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The six were kidnapped by the KLA in front of their houses in Obilic, some 10km north-west of the capital of Kosovo, Pristina, on June 16th, Tanjug said.

"The word games on `disarmament' and `demilitarisation' are not very intelligent," the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Chernomyrdin as saying.

The UN resolution on the Kosovo peace settlement provides for the "demilitarisation" of the KLA, not its complete disarmament.

An accord signed by the KLA leader, Mr Hashim Thaci, and the commander of the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo (Kfor), Gen Sir Michael Jackson, says the KLA must hand over all but its smallest weapons to Kfor within three months.

Mr Chernomyrdin had been expected to meet both President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, the European Union's Kosovo envoy, and the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, in Strasbourg, but Russian diplomatic sources told ITAR-TASS that Mr Talbott would not travel to France.

Mr Chernomyrdin will also meet Mr Ibrahim Rugova, head of the moderate Albanians in Kosovo, during his visit.