BERLIN, March 13 (UPI) -- A study commissioned by the German Defense Ministry has given a devastating assessment of the security situation in the Balkans, a news magazine reported.
A non-public study of the Institute for European Policy, a Berlin-based think tank, gives a very pessimistic outlook for development in Kosovo, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Rebuilding efforts for a "multi-ethnic society has failed," the magazine quotes the study.
The security strategy of the European Union for a future mission in Pristina is "neither analytically nor in its core concepts" working, the experts conclude in their 124-page document.
The experts, due to unrealistically high hopes for future economic growth in the region, even fear that frustrated citizens will turn violent. "Heavy unrest, if not revolutionary uprisings," could be the consequences, the experts warn.
They criticize the key players on the ground: The United Nations, the NATO-led KFOR mission -- which is infiltrated by "organized criminal gangs," they say -- the look-away policy of the EU, and what they see as a counterproductive engagement of the United States.
Der Spiegel writes that according to the study, "Washington is involved in rescue operations of criminals, has interfered 'partly openly' with European investigations of war crimes and has militarily trained former (Kosovo Liberation Army) fighters -- a 'clear' violation of the U.N. resolution."
