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Kosovo talks "no triumph" for Swiss diplomacy
swissinfo
August 2, 2005 11:40 PM
Calmy-Rey toured Kosovo at the weekend
Calmy-Rey toured Kosovo at the weekend (Keystone)
Micheline Calmy-Reys trip to Kosovo will not go down as a "great
moment in Swiss diplomacy", according to a Geneva-based professor of
international politics.
In an interview with swissinfo, Andre Liebich said the Swiss foreign
minister was jeopardising Switzerlands neutral role by pushing for a form
of independence for the province.
He was speaking as Calmy-Rey wrapped up a four-day tour of Kosovo, during
which she held talks with President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister Bajram
Kosumi.
Her trip comes on the heels of a recent visit to Serbia and Montenegro,
which was marked by a terse and unambiguous message from the authorities in
Belgrade: Serbian President Boris Tadic told Calmy-Rey he was not open to
discussion about independence for Kosovo.
The province officially remains part of Serbia and Montenegro, the union
that replaced Yugoslavia.
But it has been under United Nations and Nato administration since a 78-day
Nato-led air war halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in 1999.
Liebich, of the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, said
Switzerland should keep its options open if it is to win the trust of all
sides during any talks about the future status of Kosovo.
swissinfo: Micheline Calmy-Rey has said that the reintegration of Kosovo
into Serbia and Montenegro is neither desirable nor realistic. Do you agree?
Andre Liebich: Yes. There needs to be a new formula. After all, the country
[that existed] before the war in Kosovo is not the country we have today.
Serbia and Montenegro is on the verge of splitting and there is no trace of
the old Yugoslav federation. So there is no going back to how things were
before, and that is something that I think is accepted even in Belgrade.
swissinfo: Would you agree with the Swiss foreign minister that the time is
right to push for a decision about the future status of Kosovo?
A.L.: A valid case can be made for the idea that we need to jump-start the
discussion. It was, after all, a real shock last year when there were riots
in Kosovo and several Serbs were killed after a run-in between a Serb and an
Albanian.
But a case could also be made for saying that we should let sleeping dogs
lie and let the process of reconciliation take place. So you could also
plausibly argue that we should let time take its course.
Having said all that, I would stress that nobody should pre-empt how this is
all going to end. It is counterproductive to suggest that the outcome should
be independence for Kosovo... because the point is not to close off any
options but to create a situation where both sides are willing to make
concessions.
""
This is not going to go down as a great moment for Swiss diplomacy.
""
swissinfo: Are you suggesting that Calmy-Rey has jumped the gun by referring
to the possibility of a form of independence for Kosovo?
A.L.: That is possible. From what I have read, it seems that Calmy-Rey was
keen to get a discussion [on the status question] on the table. But the
discussion is already on the table and it didnt need any particular new
impetus. The other possibility is that what she has said has been
manipulated and used by her hosts [in Kosovo].
The nuance of what she may have meant by "independence" seems to have been
lost on the authorities in Kosovo, who appear to have presented Calmy-Reys
message in such a way that it has become Swiss endorsement for a sovereign
Kosovo state. All in all this is not going to go down as a great moment for
Swiss diplomacy.
swissinfo: How much of a dangerous diplomatic game is Calmy-Rey playing?
A.L.: Fortunately Switzerland doesnt have all that much weight. But I dont
think it reflects well on the reflective nature of Swiss diplomacy.
Take the neutrality card which Switzerland still holds. Of course neutrality
doesnt mean indifference to what happens and it doesnt mean disengagement,
but it does mean keeping options open. And that is what hasnt happened
during this visit, and thats why Im disappointed.
Of course [Calmy-Rey's reference to independence] may simply be an
unfortunate turn of phrase which has been exploited by people on the spot...
but I havent seen a retraction on her part.
swissinfo: But Calmy-Rey does appear to have toned down talk of independence
by reportedly referring, for example, to the idea of a confederation between
Kosovo and Serbia and Montenegro...
A.L.: That is the sort of direction in which I think we should be heading.
But its a question of sequence. Do you first promise Kosovo independence,
give it and then try to create some kind of regional set-up? That doesnt
seem promising at all.
Or do you first go about setting up a confederation with its own rules and
then work [within this framework] towards sovereignty? Thats a good
direction to go in, but it doesnt seem to be the thrust of what Calmy-Rey
has been saying.
swissinfo-interview: Ramsey Zarifeh
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URL of this story
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=5982180
Related Sites
Swiss foreign ministry: http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/e/home.html
Serbian government: http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu/?change_lang=en
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Kosovo:
http://www.sdc.admin.ch/countrydoc.php?navID=131&userhash=30001899&l=e
Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva:
http://heiwww.unige.ch/
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
