http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/27/europe/EU-GEN-Kosovo-Talks.php
Associated Press
November 27, 2007
Kosovo talks deadlock as Serbia warns of blockades if
province declares independence
-Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic,
said Serbia would respond "like any country in Europe
would react if its borders would be in danger."
-Critics, including Russia — an ally of Serbia that
insists the U.N. Security Council have the final say
on its future status — contend a unilateral
declaration of independence would plunge the Balkans
back into turmoil and set a dangerous precedent for
other separatist movements worldwide.
BADEN, Austria - Talks on the future status of Kosovo
are deadlocked, officials said Tuesday as a senior
Serbian official warned that Belgrade will "do
everything short of sending tanks" if the breakaway
province declares independence.
Skender Hyseni, a spokesman for Kosovo's ethnic
Albanian leadership, told reporters that Serbia —
which insists Kosovo remain part of its territory —
"continues to offer a recipe for frozen conflicts and
half-solutions which don't take us anywhere."
"I am convinced that nothing spectacular will happen
... Belgrade refuses to approach Kosovo as a de facto
independent country," Hyseni said as internationally
mediated talks — the final session before a U.N.
deadline next month — stumbled into their second day
with no breakthrough in sight.
Serbian President Boris Tadic insisted there was room
to compromise and offered Kosovo self-governance,
which the Albanian side rejected.
Meanwhile, in Belgrade, a ranking Serbian official
warned of consequences if Kosovo declares statehood
unilaterally at some point after Dec. 10, the deadline
for international envoys to report back to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"We'll do everything short of sending tanks to
Kosovo," said the official, who spoke to The
Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to publicly discuss the
government's planned response.
He said Serbia would impose a "complete economic and
travel blockade" of Kosovo, including cutting off
electricity supplies to the province and banning
ethnic Albanians and their goods from crossing the
borders.
In Baden, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan
Samardzic, said Serbia would respond "like any country
in Europe would react if its borders would be in
danger."
Although Kosovo formally remains part of Serbia, the
southern province has been run by the U.N. and NATO
since 1999, when the Western military alliance
launched an air war that ended former Yugoslav leader
Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian
separatists.
Critics, including Russia — an ally of Serbia that
insists the U.N. Security Council have the final say
on its future status — contend a unilateral
declaration of independence would plunge the Balkans
back into turmoil and set a dangerous precedent for
other separatist movements worldwide.
Hashim Thaci, a former rebel leader who is Kosovo's
incoming new prime minister, conceded that the chances
of forging a compromise were "very difficult," but he
denied that the region would plunge back into conflict
if the province declares independence.
....
This week's session in the Austrian spa town of Baden
is seen as a last-ditch attempt to reach a negotiated
settlement.
But Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority has not budged
on its quest for full independence from Serbia, and
Serbian leaders have refused to back down from their
insistence that the southern province remain part of
Serbia.
The rival sides' entrenched positions — and a bleak
assessment from the chief Western envoy overseeing the
talks — raised the likelihood that Kosovo will declare
independence, perhaps early in 2008.
"Kosovo will be a state," Thaci declared Tuesday.
Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Russia's representative
to the mediating "troika" that also includes envoys
from the U.S. and the European Union, told reporters
that Moscow would insist that talks continue after
Dec. 10.
The closed-door talks in Baden close out a bitter
series of meetings between the rival sides since the
collapse earlier this year of a blueprint for eventual
independence drawn up by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
Ahtisaari's plan called for internationally supervised
statehood for Kosovo. But Moscow threatened to veto
the proposal at the Security Council, prompting the
EU, U.S. and Russia to mount another attempt at a
negotiated settlement.
___
Associated Press Writer Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade,
Serbia, contributed to this report.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
