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Serbs,
Ethnic Albanians Don't Reach Deal
VIENNA, Austria_U.N.-mediated talks over Kosovo's disputed political status
will resume in a month after a Serb and ethnic Albanian meeting on the issue
Tuesday produced no agreement.
The two-day talks at Vienna's Daun-Kinssky Palace were aimed at resolving one of the
toughest disputes left from the 1990s ethnic Balkan conflicts: whether Kosovo should gain full independence
or remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.
Albert Rohan, the
U.N.'s deputy envoy at the talks, said that the first encounter was held in a
"cooperative spirit" and mediators found some common ground during discussions.
He set the next meeting for March 17.
Rohan said the talks were not aimed at
reaching a specific agreement but rather to finding common ground on issues not
directly linked to Kosovo's
status.
Ethnic Albanians, who comprise about 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million, want
independence. Serbia
insists on retaining some control over the region, which it considers an
integral part of the nation and the birthplace of its national identity
centuries ago.
Leon Kojen, a Serb delegate, said the talks were "useful" but
that the two sides remained opposed on Kosovo's future status.
"Solutions
which contravene the territorial integrity of (Serbia-Montenegro) for us are unacceptable,"
Kojen said after the meeting.
Lutfi Haziri, the head of the Kosovo delegation, said the province
should become independent "as soon as possible. If it is possible tomorrow, we
would be happy," he said.
Rohan said U.N. mediators were tackling practical
issues in the hope of reaching a final agreement by the end of 2006.
The
United Nations has administered the province since 1999, after NATO launched air
attacks to stop a crackdown on independence-minded ethnic Albanians by President
Slobodan Milosevic's Serb forces.
Thousands of people died and hundreds of
thousands were displaced during the war, and the end of hostilities did not
bring the two sides any closer to a resolution.
Rohan conceded that it might
take a generation for the two sides to live together in harmony after the
bloodshed of the 1990s. For now the best hope for them is if they cohabit, Rohan
said.
The overall process is being mediated by former Finnish President
Martti Ahtisaari.
Diplomats from the so-called Contact Group _ the United
States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia _ have already agreed that
the province cannot return to its previous status under direct Serb rule, nor
can it be partitioned along ethnic lines or join another country in the region,
such as Albania. They also
stipulate that any agreement should be acceptable to the province's ethnic
Albanians.
The two sides have disagreed over how much power should be held
locally, with the province's minority Serbs insisting they be allowed to run
affairs in their communities, establish links to other Serb areas and have
special ties to Belgrade. Kosovo's ethnic Albanians say such a
solution is a recipe for ethnic partition.
Finally,
final status Kosovo must soon secure conditional independence
The international community is finally
summoning up the courage to try to settle the Kosovo question - the last big
unsolved issue left by the violent collapse of Yugoslavia.
Not before time.
While there are risks in pressing for a settlement, it is more dangerous for
Kosovo to remain as it is - a
United Nations protectorate with its future blighted by uncertainty,
unemployment and rampant crime.
The Kosovo Contact Group, consisting of
the US, European Union states and Russia, was right after the 1999 war to freeze
talk of Kosovo's final status,
given the danger of provoking renewed fighting between the ethnic Albanian
majority, which wants independence, and the Serb minority which claims Kosovo remains part of Serbia.
But now conditions in the
former Yugoslavia are improving.
Slovenia has joined the EU,
Croatia has started entry
talks, Macedonia is a
recognised accession candidate, and Bosnia, Serbia and
Montenegro
have started association agreement talks. Meanwhile Slobodan Milosevic,
ex-Yugoslav president, and other alleged war criminals are in custody, although
Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still free. And the
economy is recovering from the wars of the 1990s.
With unemployment, crime
and corruption rife, the environment is not perfect. Serbia is in a
particularly hard position: as well as the prospect of losing Kosovo, it faces a likely complete
break with Montenegro, the
last ex-Yugoslav republic linked to Belgrade.
But there may never be a better
time to act on Kosovo. And, with
the US and its allies
embroiled in the Middle East, western diplomats
badly need a settlement in the Balkans to show intervention can end
in success.
The plan is for ethnic Albanians and Serbs to negotiate a
settlement. But these talks will very likely break down as Belgrade refuses to accept
independence and ethnic Albanians, who compose over 90 per cent of the
population, want nothing less.
The Contact Group must then be ready to
impose conditional independence as anything less would perpetuate instability
and risk an ethnic Albanian backlash. In return, the ethnic Albanians must be
pressed to grant the local Serbs constitutional safeguards.
A settlement can
be imposed only if Russia co-operates. Moscow has voiced concern about the precedent independence
might set for troubled zones of the former Soviet
Union. But Russia must be persuaded that
UN-sanctioned conditional independence would be a less frightening precedent
than an ethnic Albanian uprising.
Whatever the final deal, international
troops and administrators must remain in Kosovo for years to come. The EU must
continue to support the region with aid and stick by promises of future EU
membership. Nothing will help the region to break with the past and focus on the
future more than the prospect of EU integration.
The international community
is finally summoning up the courage to try to settle the Kosovo question - the last big
unsolved issue left by the violent collapse of Yugoslavia.
Not before time.
While there are risks in pressing for a settlement, it is more dangerous for
Kosovo to remain as it is - a
United Nations protectorate with its future blighted by uncertainty,
unemployment and rampant crime.
The Kosovo Contact Group, consisting of
the US, European Union states and Russia, was right after the 1999 war to freeze
talk of Kosovo's final status,
given the danger of provoking renewed fighting between the ethnic Albanian
majority, which wants independence, and the Serb minority which claims Kosovo remains part of Serbia.
But now conditions in the former Yugoslavia are improving.
Slovenia has joined the EU,
Croatia has started entry
talks, Macedonia is a
recognised accession candidate, and Bosnia, Serbia and
Montenegro
have started association agreement talks. Meanwhile, ex-Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic and other alleged war criminals are in custody, although
Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still free. And the
economy is recovering from the wars of the 1990s.
With unemployment, crime
and corruption rife, the enviroment is not perfect. Serbia is in a
particularly hard position: as well as the prospect of losing Kosovo, it faces a likely complete
break with Montenegro, the
last ex-Yugoslav republic linked to Belgrade.
But there may never be a better
time to act on Kosovo. And, with
the US and its allies
embroiled in the Middle East, western diplomats
badly need a settlement in the Balkans to show intervention can end
in success.
The plan is for ethnic Albanians and Serbs to negotiate a
settlement. But, these talks will very likely break down as Belgrade refuses to accept
independence and ethnic Albanians, who compose over 90 per cent of the
population, want nothing less.
The Contact Group must then be ready to
impose conditional independence as anything less would perpetuate instability
and risk an ethnic Albanian backlash. In return, the ethnic Albanians must be
pressed to grant the local Serbs constitutional safeguards.
A settlement can
be imposed only if Russia cooperates. Moscow has voiced concern about the precedent independence
might set for troubled zones of the former Soviet
Union. But Russia must be persuaded that
UN-sanctioned conditional independence would be a less frightening precedent
than an ethnic Albanian uprising.
Whatever the final deal, international
troops and administrators must remain in Kosovo for years to come. The EU must
continue to support the region with aid and stick by promises of future EU
membership. Nothing will help the region to break with the past and focus on the
future more than the prospect of EU integration.
U.S.
says a settlement of Kosovo problem must protect rights of minority Serbs
WASHINGTON_The State Department said Tuesday
that a Kosovo settlement should
be based on protection of rights for the territory's minority Serb population
and acceptance by all the people of area.
Spokesman Adam Ereli said Kosovo was discussed Monday at a
meeting in Vienna between U.N. envoy Martti
Ahtisaari and leaders from Kosovo and Serbia.
It was the first direct dialogue between the
parties since the status process began in November.
"They discussed how the decentralization of
the government can better protect the rights of Kosovo's minorities and improve the
delivery of public services to all of Kosovo's citizens," Ereli said.
He said he expects further meetings on
decentralization in the coming weeks.
Kosovo,
with an ethnic Albanian majority, is a province of Serbia. It
has been controlled by the United Nations with mainly NATO peacekeepers since a
NATO air war in 1999 ended a Serbian crackdown on the Kosovars.
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