Donors Pledge $2 Billion in Kosovo Aid

World nations and aid organizations Wednesday promised more than $2 billion to rebuild war-ravaged Kosovo--a sum that far exceeds the immediate need, officials said.

Pledges from more than 60 countries, dozens of aid agencies and regional groups totaled nearly four times the amount needed to make immediate repairs and restore order in the region, said Johannes Linn, the World Bank’s vice president for Europe and Central Asia.

Officials from the World Bank and the European Union, both of which sponsored the conference, said cost estimates for Kosovo repairs are constantly being revised, so it is impossible to say how much will be needed.

But Wednesday’s fund-raising success indicated that there would be enough, “once the broader reconstruction and recovery program is unveiled,” Linn said.

The United States pledged $500 million of the $2.08-billion total, said James Dobbins, U.S. special advisor for the Balkans. He also said that Japan offered $200 million, Germany pledged $190 million and Britain gave $145 million.

The European Union, through the European Agency for Reconstruction, offered about $160 million this year and $532 million next year.

“These pledging conferences are like people in the front pew of churches,” said Jacques Klein, the U.N.’s deputy mediator in Bosnia-Herzegovina. “They yell, ‘Put me down for $20,000!’ but when it comes time to write the check, well, they disappear. That’s happened in Bosnia.”