Pristina - Gen Klaus Reinhardt (58) of Germany took command of Kosovo's 50,000 peacekeepers yesterday, urging the people of the territory to follow the example of other countries and overcome the wounds of past conflict. British Lieut-Gen Sir Mike Jackson handed over to Gen Reinhardt in a ceremony widely viewed as symbolising Germany's increasing willingness to cast off post-war reticence and assume a higher military profile within the NATO alliance.
Gen Reinhardt did not specifically refer to his own country's Nazi past, but he stressed in his speech that the NATO-led Kosovo Force, Kfor, had troops from 29 countries, many of them bitter enemies during the second World War.