Pls. write to WP : [Е-ПОШТА
ЗАШТИЋЕНА]
.... "Kosovo's leaders have done the preliminary work required to implement
the Ahtisaari plan and have committed their country to the highest global
standards of human rights. They have fulfilled their commitments and
obligations to the international community on the question of status..."
===========
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072200883.html
Standing With Kosovo Again By John Podesta
Monday, July 23, 2007; Page A17
An important set of meetings will take place today at the State
Department and the White House that may well determine the future stability of
southeast Europe and the integrity of the international system. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice is set to meet with the "unity team" of Kosovo leaders
to decide the way forward on the status of Kosovo, now that it is clear Russia
will veto any U.N. Security Council resolution that puts Kosovo on a path to
independence.
Eight years ago, I served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff when our
administration faced a similar dilemma. Slobodan Milosevic had launched a
campaign of murder and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo that had to be stopped. Then,
as now, Russia stood in the way of proceeding through the preferred means of a
Security Council resolution. But working with our European allies and through
NATO, we found the will and international legitimacy to act.
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The ensuing war reversed the ethnic cleansing and returned hundreds of
thousands of Kosovars to their homes.
At the end of the war, after extensive bloodshed, Kosovo's leaders made a
commitment to the Kosovar people and the world that must have been difficult.
They pledged to move beyond their troubled past and create an independent
nation of Kosovars that protects the rights of all citizens and respects the
rule of law.
Two years ago, with support and encouragement from the international
community, leaders of all of Kosovo's leading parties put their differences
aside and formed a "unity team" to undertake 14 months of good-faith
negotiations on Kosovo's status under the mediation of a U.N. special envoy,
former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. Imagine George W. Bush, Nancy
Pelosi, Harry Reid, John McCain and Hillary Clinton sticking to negotiations
for 14 months, including making many difficult concessions, to accomplish
something like what these Kosovar leaders accomplished -- putting their country
on the path to independence from Serbia and integration into Europe.
At the end of the 14 months, Ahtisaari concluded that "the time has come to
resolve Kosovo's status" and "the only viable option for Kosovo is
independence, to be supervised for an initial period by the international
community." The Ahtisaari plan includes strong protections for Kosovo's
non-Albanian communities and their religious and cultural heritage. The United
States, Britain, France, Italy, the foreign ministers of the European Union and
the U.N. secretary general all have stated their support for the Ahtisaari plan
and for an independent Kosovo. Yet Russia still stands in the way.
The process cannot continue to drift indefinitely. As in 1999, a way forward
must be found.
The uncertainty of Kosovo's status endangers regional stability and is unfair
to the Kosovar people. The international community must set forth a clear,
transparent, legitimate and timely diplomatic process that will resolve
Kosovo's status by a date certain.
Fortunately, the United States has played a constructive role in moving the
diplomatic process forward and in counseling Kosovo's leaders and people to
realize their dream of independence.
As someone who has leveled a fair share of criticism toward the Bush
administration's efforts at nation-building in Iraq and around the globe, I
have to commend its steady hand in exposing Russian intransigence and in laying
the groundwork for international recognition of Kosovo's independence if
Russian obstinacy persists.
The administration and our key European allies have agreed to one final round
of good-faith negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, to take no longer than
120 days. This week's meetings are expected to lay the groundwork for those
talks. It is clear that after those talks conclude, the United States is
prepared to recognize an independent Kosovo. The question is whether European
governments will follow suit. To do otherwise is to risk a replay of the Balkan
chaos of the early 1990s.
I recently visited Kosovo, and I think it is fair to say that the patience of
the Kosovar people has worn thin. But their fortitude and their commitment to
an independent Kosovo that respects the rights of all its citizens is
unwavering.
Kosovo's leaders have done the preliminary work required to implement the
Ahtisaari plan and have committed their country to the highest global standards
of human rights. They have fulfilled their commitments and obligations to the
international community on the question of status.
It is time for the international community to fulfill its obligations and
help complete the process that will create a country not of Kosovar Albanians
or Kosovar Serbs, but a new nation for all Kosovars.
The writer is president of the Center for American Progress.
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