GEORGE GILSON
IN BELGRADE
KOSOVO Albanian and Serbian leaders remained as implacable as ever over the future of the province when Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis visited them last week.Kosovo Albanian leaders - from President Ibrahim Rugova to Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi and opposition leader Hashim Thaci - all stressed at meetings with Molyviatis on December 6 that they are prepared to accept nothing less than full independence for the Serbian province, which has become an international protectorate since the 1999 Nato war against Serbia.
Molyviatis was leading a troika of the 10-member South-Eastern Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP). He told top leaders in Pristina and Belgrade that the price of Kosovo stability cannot be regional instability. The troika included Romanian Deputy Foreign Minister Lucian Leustian and Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Hidajet Biscevic.
Molyviatis stated that anchoring regional countries in the European Union and Nato is the best guarantee for Balkan stability, and he underlined that any Kosovo solution must abide by the guidelines of the contact group for the former Yugoslavia, principles based on a report prepared by diplomat Karl Eide for the UN Security Council. The guidelines tacitly point to an independent Kosovo, as they call for the province's progress toward EU and Nato membership.
Principles paramount
The "ten commandments" of the guidelines include: respect for human rights, democracy and international law; advancing Kosovo's European perspective; ensuring a multi-ethnic society; participation of all ethnic communities in central and decentralised local government; guarantees to protect Serbian Orthodox religious and cultural monuments; guaranteeing regional stability by keeping Kosovo unitary and prohibiting union with neighbouring countries; security measures to ensure that Kosovo will not be a military threat to its neighbours; measures for economic development and cooperation with international economic and political organisations; and an international political and military oversight for a number of years.
Kosovo PM Kosumi told the Athens News that he welcomes the interest of the Balkan neighbours. "This is regional cooperation to help Kosovo on the way to solving the status issue and to achieve full independence, which is a guarantee for long-term development, " he said. Kosumi asserted that implementation of democratic standards that protect minorities "is the policy of the Kosovo government". "This is about creating new European standards, including standards not implemented yet, in order to be part of European society," he noted.
Rugova underlined that independence is the only acceptable final status and that he envisions a "Kosovo integrated in the EU and Nato with a permanent relationship with the USA, while also guaranteeing the protection of minority rights". Asked by the Athens News about a December 2 OSCE report that outlined the failure of the Kosovo judicial system to prosecute crimes committed by 50,000 Albanians against Serbs in widespread riots in March 2004, Rugova asserted that independence will help both the minority and the majority. "It's a new judicial system that started just two years ago. We cannot only criticise," he said.
Rugova told the Athens News that "great progress" has been made over the years to ensure the prosperity of the Serb minority and that their representation in parliament has been secured. However, the Serb minority have so far refused to participate in Kosovo government structures.
Opposition leader Hashim Thaci, best known as the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the Nato bombings, told the Athens News that the Balkan troika was not averse to Kosovo independence. "They have the position of the international community, which is to respect the will of the people," he said.
Protecting Serb minority
Soren Jessen Petersen, who heads the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), told the Athens News that both Belgrade and the Kosovo Albanians must do more to secure Serb minority rights. "I asked the minister [Molyviatis] to urge Belgrade to engage constructively on behalf of the Kosovo Serbs. One of our biggest concerns is their plight and future. We want the Kosovo Serbs to stay, be safe, and feel they have a future. But we cannot do it if we do not have their involvement and the engagement of Belgrade," he said.
Petersen stressed that the Albanians must also do much more to build trust with the Serbs. "Kosovo Albanian political and community leaders must reach out to the Kosovo Serbs much more frequently - in the churches, villages and towns. We urge them to do this because we are at the stage where words are not enough," he underlined.
"The most important [political] standards still require a lot of work, especially regarding minorities. Secondly, we are still working on decentralisation. Minorities will be assured to a large extent through extensive local self-government, " he said.
As for the OSCE report on the failure to prosecute crimes against Serbs, Petersen said that while "a lot of those who perpetrated violence have been prosecuted and are serving sentences... I fully agree that there are too many who have not been prosecuted, which raises the risk of encouraging impunity."
The Serbian leadership, which faces a spring referendum in which Montenegro may secede from the federation, appears divided over the Kosovo issue. In Belgrade, both President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojslav Kostunica ruled out independence, while Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic reiterated the Serbian position for "something more than autonomy and less than independence". Unlike Tadic and Kostunica, Draskovic has favoured the active participation of the Kosovo Serb minority in the Albanian-controlled governmental structures of the province.
Serbian President Tadic called for the creation of "two entities" in the province by establishing a string of autonomous, Serb-majority municipalities that are not geographically contiguous. These would have broad authority over their own security, health, judicial and educational issues. He said that the autonomous Serb municipalities, which the Albanian majority clearly opposes, should have "fully functional links with Serbia proper". Tadic stressed that Belgrade must make a "vital contribution" in ensuring the economic and cultural prosperity of the Serb minority without controlling the Albanian majority.
Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic told the Athens News that he fully supports a more active role for the Serb minority in Kosovo institutions, a view not explicitly shared by Tadic or Kostunica. "I believe that it is better to fight for rights than be obstructionist. I hope that Mr. Ahtisaari [appointed by the UN to conduct final status talks] will start shuttle diplomacy by solving real life problems step by step. That includes creating a chain of Serb-majority municipalities and creating protected zones around the main Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries. Serbs will then change their attitude toward Kosovo institutions," Draskovic said.
ATHENS NEWS , 09/12/2005, page: A03
Article code: C13160A031
