<http://www.nytimes.com/> <http://www.nytimes.com/> The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/>
_____
August 11, 2007
As Envoys Meet, No Budging on a Stalemate Over Kosovo
By NICHOLAS WOOD
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/nicholas_wood/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, Aug. 10 — A month after talks on the future of Kosovo
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/serbia/kosovo/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>
foundered at the United Nations Security
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/security_council/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
Council, envoys from the United States, the European Union
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
and Russia began a three-day visit to the region on Friday in an attempt to
kick-start a new round of negotiations.
But politicians and diplomats in the region say they are skeptical that an
agreement can be reached, leaving Western governments with the dilemma of
whether or not to independently recognize the breakaway province as its own
state — without the endorsement of the Security Council.
Officially, diplomats say that new talks could lead to a compromise between
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership, which wants independence, and the Serbian
government in Belgrade, thereby bridging a substantial rift between Russia,
Serbia’s main ally, and Western governments over Kosovo’s future.
Russia has rejected a United Nations
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
plan that would give Kosovo independence, though under the supervision of a
European-led mission. Russia has threatened to veto the plan in the Security
Council, and has insisted that any settlement must be supported by both the
Serbs and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians.
Serbia is adamant that the province, which is now administered by the United
Nations, remain a part of its territory.
The envoys met with the Serbian president, Boris Tadic, and the nation’s prime
minister, Vojislav Kostunica
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/vojislav_kostunica/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
, for over an hour in Belgrade on Friday, but declined to speak to reporters
afterward. They are scheduled to spend Saturday and Sunday in Pristina,
Kosovo’s capital.
Ban Ki-moon
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/ban_ki_moon/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
, the secretary general of the United Nations, has set a deadline of Dec. 10
to conclude the latest negotiations between the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians.
Both sides are sticking to hardened positions. Ethnic Albanians make up over 90
percent of the population of Kosovo, yet Serbia, which has sovereignty over
Kosovo, though only in name, says it is ready to give the region substantial
autonomy, but not full independence.
“Any proposal other than independence is unacceptable,” said Agim Ceku,
Kosovo’s prime minister, speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Pristina.
This month, Serbia’s foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, appeared to adopt a more
conciliatory tone, saying his government was ready to compromise by offering
Kosovo rights associated with sovereignty, like membership of the World Bank
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/w/world_bank/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
and the International
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/international_monetary_fund/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
Monetary Fund.
The United Nations has administered Kosovo since 1999, when Serbian forces, who
were accused of having committed atrocities against ethnic Albanians, were
forced to leave Kosovo after a 78-day NATO
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
-led bombing campaign. The arrangement ended a two-year conflict between
ethnic Albanian insurgents and the government of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia
was the dominant part.
Some diplomats, who have been involved in the negotiations since they began in
February 2006, say that ultimately a settlement will have to be imposed.
“There is nothing to negotiate,” said a Western diplomat in Pristina, speaking
on the condition of anonymity under customary diplomatic rules. “There is no
compromise to be found.”
A stumbling block to an imposed settlement is that a number of European
governments are unwilling to support a solution not supported by the United
Nations.
DCSIMG
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/world/europe/11kosovo.html?ex=1344484800&en=887a5c091845f92b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/clientside/29019b87Q2FQ20%29vQ5BQ7C3yQ5BdvRQ27Q5BdQ5BQ26Q5BdQ2F%29fyQ7DQ26
<<image001.gif>>
<<image002.gif>>
<<image003.png>>
