Serb Negotiator Says Kosovo Talks Revision Needed -Report
Monday October 9th, 2006 / 13h57
BELGRADE (AP)--A chief Serb negotiator in the Kosovo talks called Monday for a
"serious revision" of the U.N.-brokered process, including the replacement of
U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, according to a news report.
Slobodan Samardzic, an adviser to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said a
"new methodology" is needed in order to reach a compromise between Serbia and
Kosovo Albanians on the future status of the contested province, according to
the official Tanjug news agency. He didn't elaborate.
The negotiations, which started early this year under U.N. auspices, so far
have produced no result with both sides entrenched in their positions - the
ethnic Albanians demanding independence from Serbia and Belgrade offering broad
autonomy for the breakaway region.
On Monday, the chief mediator, Ahtisaari acknowledged compromise is nowhere in
sight because he said both sides remain too far apart.
"The parties remain diametrically opposed," Ahtisaari said in the Finnish
capital, Helsinki. "I can't see there will be a negotiated settlement."
But, he added his team "will continue to press forward until all potential
areas for compromise have been explored."
Kosovo, formally a Serbian province, has been run by the U.N. and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization since a 1999 war. The region remains a potential
flash point in the Balkans.
The U.S. and its allies in the so-called Contact Group for Kosovo - which also
includes the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Russia - have sought to wrap up
the talks by year end.
Most analysts have predicted Kosovo would be granted some form of independence,
despite Serbia's opposition to the secession.
The plans to find a solution for Kosovo this year have failed, Samardzic said,
according to the Tanjug interview. He said a different approach and a new envoy
are needed next year to push the process forward, the report said.
"The situation will take a new course from Jan. 1," Samardzic was quoted as
saying. "I believe this course will entail a serious revision of the entire
process by the United Nations and the Contact Group."
In Finland, Ahtisaari failed to specify what would be the next step in case no
solution is found for Kosovo at the negotiating table.
But he warned "Kosovo is the last piece of the Balkan puzzle. Without a lasting
solution for Kosovo, there will be no lasting solution for the Balkans."
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Serbian News Network - SNN
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