Ahtisaari sees no solution in Kosovo status talks Monday, October 09, 2006 7:01 AM
HELSINKI, Finland-U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari sees no solution in the talks on the status of Kosovo because the two sides are too divided, he said Monday. "I don't see the parties moving on the status issue. The parties remain diametrically opposed," the chief U.N. negotiator in the talks said in Helsinki. "I can't see there will be a negotiated settlement." "Pristina has been prepared to make clear concessions, but Belgrade has been considerably less so," Ahtisaari said at a seminar on the Balkans in Finland's Parliament. "My overall assessment of these technical talks is that the prospect for finding a common ground is very limited." However, he added that he will persevere with the talks. Ahtisaari said 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 United Nations and NATO since a 1999 war. The United States and the Contact Group for Kosovo, which includes Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, have sought to wrap up the talks by year end. But the negotiations, which started early this year, 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. "Kosovo is the last piece of the Balkan puzzle that the international community has been attempting to reassemble since the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia 15 years ago," Ahtisaari said. "Without a lasting solution for Kosovo, there will be no lasting solution for the Balkans." http://www.serbianna.com/news/2006/02412.shtml Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
