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Training of Kosovo troops at US Camp Bondsteel violates UN resolutions — Russian diplomat

Located near the city of Urosevac, Camp Bondsteel serves as the main base of the United States Army under KFOR command in Kosovo

VIENNA, October 11. /TASS/. The training of Kosovo troops at Camp Bondsteel, the main base of the United States Army under KFOR command in Kosovo, violates UN Security Council resolutions, Russia’s OSCE envoy Alexander Lukashevich said.

"In breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, preparations are being conducted to transform the current security forces of Kosovo into a full-fledged army at the closed territory of the US military base, Camp Bondsteel," Lukashevich told a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday evening.

He also said the Special Court in The Hague has made little progress in its work to prosecute former Kosovo Liberation Army members for wartime and post-war crimes.

"Those responsible for heinous crimes, like illegal trade in human organs, have escaped their well-deserved punishment," he said.

"As the latest history has shown, attempts to swerve from the agreed path of the Kosovo settlement and encourage Pristina's ambitions for creating a quasi-state, will not help to settle the Kosovo conflict, but, on the contrary, will keep fuelling tensions in West Balkans," he said.

Located near the city of Urosevac, Camp Bondsteel serves as the main base of the United States Army under KFOR command in Kosovo and the NATO headquarters for KFOR's Multinational Battle Group East (MNBG-E).

The facility, which occupies an area of 3.86 square km, used to house about 50,000 soldiers in the wake of the 1999 NATO bombings of Yugoslavia. Currently, no exact figures on the number of personnel stationed there are avaialbe, with unofficial estimates ranging between 5,000 and 15,000 servicemen.