Summit on security and border controls in Balkans starts in Macedonia

OHRID, Macedonia (AFP) May 22, 2003
Leaders of seven Balkans countries were dur to meet Thursday to discuss, under the auspices of NATO Secretary General George Robertson, strengthening border controls to fight organized crime, seen as a threat to regional stability.

The two-day conference, due to start at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT), is organized by Macedonia, NATO and the Balkans Stability Pact in the historic Macedonian town of Ohrid, the site of a 2001 NATO-backed peace accord which ended an ethnic Albanian insurgency in the former Yugoslav Republic.

The participants are expected to agree in principle on a plan to reinforce border security, which NATO sees as inadequate, with experts due to work out the details on Friday.

The conference is aimed at helping the countries in the region cooperate in the fight against organized crime, NATO said in a statement earlier this month.

"The currently inadequate border security of much of the region has created major problems of drug smuggling, gun-running, human trafficking, and political violence," NATO's statement said.

It also "poses one of the main threats to stability in the Western Balkans, as well as leading to further problems in the rest of Europe," the statement added.

Ahead of the conference, Robertson's adviser, Mark Laity, told reporters in the Macedonian capital Skopje that "we have to crack down the illegal activities on the borders and to open the borders of the western Balkans for cooperation."

"In Ohrid we are starting a proces in which you can conclude that you can't speak for border security without regional cooperation," Laity said.

And the European Commission pledged Wednesday to strengthen ties with the western Balkan countries in order to speed up their integration into the European Union, insisting however that "the constant battle to tackle corruption and organized crime" was necessary in order to reach that aim.

Beside Robertson, participants in the meeting will include the Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Jan Kubis, special coordinator of the Stability Pact Erhard Busek as well as representatives of European Union and European Commission.

Leaders of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Albania will take part in the conference.

WAR.WIRE