"Kosovo out of international focus"
25 January 2009 | 15:12 | Source: Beta WASHINGTON -- In the short-term, Kosovo will no longer be in the focus of the international community, U.S. political analyst John Zavales says. Zavales told Voice of America's Serbian language service that this will come due to "the conflict in Gaza", and the global economic crisis. "Even in the Balkans, more attention is being paid at this time to the Athens-Skopje dispute over Macedonia's official name. Both sides in Kosovo, Serbs and Albanians, will try to keep the status quo without further disturbances." "From the point of view of the Kosovo Albanians, they have achieved most of their wishes and more than 50 countries so far have recognized Kosovo," he said. Zavales also stated that while Albanians will continue to claim a formal right to all of Kosovo's territory, Belgrade will stick to its refusal to recognize the unilaterally declared independence, and will continue to maintain special ties with the Serb community. "All of this hints at some form of peaceful and informal partition of Kosovo. As Serbia approaches the EU, the formal status of northern Kosovo and the enclaves could become less relevant, while Belgrade will continue to support the status quo and present ties with the northern part of Kosovo and the enclaves." The American analyst was also quoted as saying that most of the countries that supported Kosovo's independence did so within a month of the declaration – in February last year – but that the process had slowed down "because Serbia gained the right to have the International Court of Justice consider the independence proclamation". For this reason, Zavales said he does not expect a large number of countries to make the recognition in the near future, although a number of the Islamic Conference states is ready to do so. "If the International Court of Justice decides that Kosovo's independence was not established in line with international law, then the countries that have recognized it will find themselves in a predicament, since the thesis about the uniqueness of the Kosovo case will no longer be sustainable," he said. At that point, an increased interest in Kosovo, "on a theoretical level", is to be expected from the international community, while the practical level will depend on further relations between Belgrade and Priština, Zavales believes. http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2009&mm=01&dd=25&nav_id=56670
