[news] DELAYS INCREASE CONDITIONINGS, REDUCE INDEPENDENCE

[ANTIC.org-SNN]

DELAYS INCREASE CONDITIONINGS, REDUCE INDEPENDENCE (Koha Ditore, by Agron Bajrami) The critics of Kofi Annan are a warning that the delay of the processes by the Kosovar side might cause a change of the international stance towards Kosovo, which perhaps might not cancel the international consensus to give to Kosovo “a conditional independence”, but might have influence on the conditioning to the detriment of independence. Annan’s latest critics have to do directly with the work of Kosovo Government, which lacks the capacity to carry out the work. While Kosovo is entering the second week of official mourning for the late President, Ibrahim Rugova, and while the pressure on opening the process for filling the gap, caused by Dr. Rugova’s death is increasing, the concerns expressed by UN SG Koffi Annan about the slowdown in implementation of the standards seem to be a warning that Kosovo is entering a new phase of internal difficulties and external pressures. “I am really concerned that implementation of the standards has faced with postponements or slowdowns,” said Annan one day after the burial of President Rugova. In the meanwhile, there are chances that a possible longer prolongation of the President’s election would be followed with grave statements about the level of maturity and effectiveness of Kosovo institutions and politicians to face with the challenges of the time. So, such reproaching tones in international statements addressed to Kosovar politics on the first post-Rugova days may be perceived, not only in Kosovo, as the change of the international course towards Kosovo’s status, which may also radicalize the positions in Prishtina and Belgrade. [ ] Any prolongation of president’s election and re-finding of the ‘unity’ for negotiations will cause delays in the process for solution of the status. This would increase the frustration of the international community regarding what me be called ‘irresponsibility of the Kosovar side’. Such a development would be probably accompanied with constant Serb interferences, who would insist to prove that ‘Kosovars are not able to have their own state.” On the other hand, Belgrade would use the international critics towards Prishtina and the slow movement of Kosovars to create a situation where they could gain new concessions, for example in decentralization. Such a development would probably increase the number of the Kosovo Albanians, who are against talks, whose main argument is that the international community has put Albanian leaders into a trap and independence is not on the agenda. Kosovo’s neighbors, especially Macedonia, would have more concerns which would derive from such a development. They are afraid that political instability in Kosovo would negatively reflect beyond its borders as well. Perhaps such a situation would not cancel the international consensus for giving a ‘conditional independence’ to Kosovo, but it could make the weight of conditions heavier.