Pristina, Serbia-Montenegro, Sept 19: Thousands of people massed along the road from Kosovo's airport to the capital Pristina welcomed former US President Bill Clinton who arrived in the Serbian province today for a one-day visit. Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova gave Clinton a warm hug after he stepped off the plane.
"I am very pleased to see things look so well," Clinton said at the airport before heading for Pristina, where he was to be given an honorary title by Pristina University later in the day. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority consider Clinton a hero for spearheading Nato's air war against Yugoslavia in 1999, which ended fighting between Belgrade forces and Albanian separatists and paved the way for a UN administration in the province.
His last visit was during his presidential mandate in November 1999, months after the province came under UN and Nato control. Clinton was to address some 200 students at the university and reiterate a call to the province's Albanian majority to accept the return of Kosovo's minorities four years since the end of the 1998-99 conflict.
Although ethnic violence has decreased since the violent revenge attacks by Albanians on minority Serbs immediately after the war, mistrust between the two communities is still deep. Bureau Report