The United Nations hopes to open "final status" talks on Kosovo
in September, provided the province in southern Serbia proves its democratic
credentials.
But a pattern of almost daily acts of violence this month -
some aimed at international officials - is worrying Kosovo's UN overseers and
the 18,500-strong NATO-led peace force.
With no guarantee that Kosovo
will become independent of Serbia, some UN officials say Albanian "extremists"
want to escalate tensions in the hope that they can stampede the UN into giving
them what they want and getting out.
"This is a warning and an
_expression_ of fear," a senior UN official said on condition of anonymity. "Under
the surface it's boiling, and it could really escalate."
On 8 March,
Kosovo prime minister and former rebel leader Ramush Haradinaj resigned after he
was charged with war crimes during the 1998-99 guerrilla war against Serb
forces.
Riots
He left for the UN tribunal the next day and Kosovo held its
breath. NATO deployed an extra 1000 troops but an anticipated backlash from his
supporters never happened.
The West praised Kosovo's democratic maturity,
relieved to see no repeat of riots in March last year in which 19 people died
and hundreds of Serb homes were torched.
"This [violence] is a
warning and an _expression_ of fear. Under the surface it's boiling, and it
could really escalate"
Senior UN
official |
But the absence of marauding
mobs masks a steady rise in incidents that fail to make the news - a hand
grenade lobbed at a UN vehicle, an anti-tank mine found under another, a blast
outside the main UN compound, shots at its satellite dish.
"There's been an increase to almost one per day," Kai Vittrup, the
Danish head of the 3000-strong UN police force, said. He also described them as
a "warning" by groups uninterested in democratic methods.
The more
serious attacks included a bomb blast targeting President Ibrahim Rugova's
convoy on 15 March, which he escaped from unhurt, and a vicious attack
on two elderly Serbs on Monday, for which there have as yet been no
arrests.
The latter coincided with a two-day trip by Kosovo's UN
governor to Belgrade where he met Serb leaders, an unpopular move among Kosovo
Albanians who fear a return to Serb rule.
Serb
demands
Serbia says independence for the land it considers sacred is
impossible. It lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign to
expel Serb forces accused of atrocities against civilians as they fought
separatist guerrillas.
|
Ethnic Albanians want
nothing less than Kosovan
independence |
After six years of
UN-imposed limbo, the 90% Albanian majority will accept nothing less than
independence, but Western powers remain publicly non-committal, fuelling
uncertainty among Kosovo's two million people.
An influential Brussels
think-tank warned in January of new conflict if there is no move to independence
this year.
It said mass unemployment was a breeding ground for unrest and
only an end to uncertainty could rescue the economy.
Analysts say some
ethnic Albanian groups want the UN to be aware of what could happen, should
independence be denied or even delayed.
"Independence is unclear, people
don't see a light at the end of the tunnel," the UN source said. "These young
men don't have anything to lose. All they've seen is that crime
pays."