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![]() Monday, June 21, 1999 Published at 17:52 GMT 18:52 UK ![]() ![]() World: Europe ![]() Running Kosovo: Key candidates ![]() ![]() World leaders are debating who to put in charge of the civil administration of Kosovo in advance of any permanent peace deal. Candidates are already being put forward by governments and diplomats. Here are the main contenders for the post. Click on the links below to read about each figure.
Bodo Hombach IPaddy Ashdown I Emma Bonino I Dick Spring I Hans van den Broek I Jacques Klein I Lakhdar Brahimi
Bodo Hombach
Bodo Hombach is German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's candidate for the job.
According to some reports, he was sacked because the chancellor had become increasingly frustrated with his performance. Mr Hombach, 46, has made his name as a brilliant election strategist who helped Mr Schröder to power. He is regarded as a "bruiser", very outspoken and with a hands-on approach to politics. His friends cite his talent for improvisation but critics have branded him a showman who overestimates his own abilities. While he had undeniable successes on the German national stage, his accomplishments at an international level are relatively few.
Between 1959 and 1972, Mr Ashdown served as a Royal Marines Officer and saw active service. After Special Forces Training in 1965, he commanded a Special Boat Section before studying Chinese in Hong Kong. In 1972, he joined the Foreign Office and became involved in treaty negotiations at United Nations level between 1974 and 1976 before entering parliament. His supporters say that he is ideally placed to take the job, thanks to his military and diplomatic background and experience of the region.
But in Brussels, she emerged unscathed from the damning report into fraud and mismanagement at the heart of the commission. Ms Bonino has been unafraid to speak out in her high-profile role as the acting commissioner for humanitarian affairs. In May, she said that the international relief effort to aid Kosovo refugees lacked co-ordination. A month earlier, she backed military intervention to establish safe areas for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people. She has the backing of the Italian government which described her candidature as "very solid".
He gained experience of dealing with inter-community tensions through his role in developing the Northern Ireland peace process. One correspondent to the Irish Times newspaper sardonically wrote of his departure from front bench politics: "The longer he stayed, the greater was the risk that politics would get a bad name. "Who wants a leader to be intelligent, analytical, articulate, incisive, distinctive, focused, determined, and unequivocal - not to mention principled and respected?" One Irish newspaper suggested that Mr Spring's chances of landing the job have been helped by the fact that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reportedly wants to appoint somebody from a non-Nato nation.
He has first-hand experience of the Kosovo crisis. In March, he held face-to-face negotiations with Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade during the build-up to the Nato air strikes, urging the Serbian president to accept the Rambouillet peace deal. During his time in Brussels, he reported on human rights and also led negotiations with Russia - a key skill for the Kosovo post. He is known to respond cuttingly to criticism and also for thinking out loud. He reportedly once sang songs from the musical My Fair Lady to members of his cabinet while his daughter married a member of the Dutch royal family.
Jacques Klein
In a speech this month, Mr Klein, the Principal Deputy High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, accused Slobodan Milosevic of having "unleashed a whirlwind of destruction and violence" in the Balkans.
"The Iron Curtain has been replaced by a new division with South Eastern Europe," he told the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
"Behind it languishes a zone of instability and misery. At its core lies a regime that for a decade now has exported hatred and bloodshed."
The US diplomat and former general with three decades of military experience is widely respected as a tough enforcer.
Last year he was linked to the post of head of the international monitoring mission to Kosovo - a job that eventually went to William Walker.
In 1997, he received praise for averting a potential fresh crisis in Bosnia when he prevented hardline Serb nationalists from seizing the presidential palace in an apparent coup attempt.
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