http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n111191
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria)
April 29, 2007
Kosovo to be independent with or without U.N.
-"If he [Putin] vetoes the Ahtisaari plan in the
Security Council, there will be a unilateral
declaration of independence by Kosovo. The United
States will recognize them, I hope the same day
....Some of the EU will, some won't," Holbrooke said.
"There will probably be violence on the ground and it
will be Russia's fault."
BRUSSELS - Kosovo will be independent with or without
a United Nations resolution, and Russia should back an
agreement to protect the Kosovo Serb minority, the
United States said on Saturday.
Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said it was
possible the latest Russian criticism of U.N. mediator
Marti Ahtisaari's plan for the final status of the
breakaway Serbian province meant Moscow intended to
block a resolution.
"We hope that Russia understands that Kosovo is going
to be independent one way or another," Fried told
Reuters in an interview at a Brussels Forum on
transatlantic relations.
"It will either be done in a controlled, supervised
way that provides for the well-being of the Serbian
people, or it will take place in an uncontrolled way
and the Kosovo Serbs will suffer the most, which would
be terrible."
Moscow has repeatedly said it will not accept a
solution which is unacceptable to Serbia, which is
adamantly opposed to any form of independence for
Kosovo.
A U.N. Security Council fact-finding mission, which
visited Kosovo at Russia's suggestion, wrapped up its
visit on Saturday saying they would deliberate on the
proposal for its independence without setting
deadlines.
"Deciding on important issues should never be hostage
to predetermined deadlines," Belgian ambassador and
mission head Johan Verbeke told a news conference in
Pristina.
Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, proposes
supervised independence with a strong role for an
international presence to protect minority rights.
Fried acknowledged the European Union could be split
over whether or not to recognize Kosovo if there was
no U.N. resolution and Kosovo's overwhelming Albanian
majority declared independence unilaterally.
"I see absolutely no advantage to doing this any other
way than through a Security Council resolution. I see
merely disadvantages," Fried said. "The alternatives
are all worse.
"A divided Europe is a bad thing in general and a
terrible thing in this particular case."
....
Kosovo has been an international protectorate since
NATO waged an air war in 1999 to drive out Serbian
forces...
Some 90 percent of the province's 2 million population
are Albanians.
"Kosovo is in the list of problems that do not improve
with age and neglect. The situation there is not
inherently stable," said Fried.
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard
Holbrooke told the Brussels Forum the next few weeks
would be a fundamental test of Russian President
Vladimir Putin's view of his role in the world.
"If he vetoes the Ahtisaari plan in the Security
Council, there will be a unilateral declaration of
independence by Kosovo. The United States will
recognize them, I hope the same day ....Some of the EU
will, some won't," Holbrooke said.
"There will probably be violence on the ground and it
will be Russia's fault."
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told the Forum he
expected a period of "diplomatic trench warfare" over
Kosovo at the United Nations and suggested the EU
should take the lead in seeking a compromise solution,
which would take time.
Asked about Holbrooke's scenario of unilateral
independence, he said: "That is playing with fire."
Serbian News Network - SNN
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