BALKANS: Breakaway of Kosovo Put on Hold

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Mar 1 2005 (IPS) - Kosovo’s claims to independence from Serbia have been turned down, for now. That means also that a difficult situation in this southern province of Serbia will continue.

A Security Council session of the United Nations held that it is too early for Kosovo to claim independence because it has not made enough progress in implementing the required standards.

The United Nations has administered the province since June 1999, after the 11-week North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing campaign against Serbia. The campaign was undertaken due to the repressive politics of the Serbian regime of former leader Slobodan Milosevic against two million ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

More than 10,000 Albanians were killed and some 800,000 evicted by Milosevic’s regime in 1998-99. Belgrade dubbed the independence drive by Kosovo Albanians “terrorism”.

The introduction of the UN administration and the presence of thousands of NATO peacekeepers in 1999 meant that Serb security forces could not set foot in Kosovo again, and that the direct rule of Belgrade in the province was over.

Kosovo gradually started building its own parliament, government, judiciary, and police systems under the auspices of the UN. Under UN Resolution 1244, however, Kosovo formally remained a part of Serbia.

The UN set eight standards to be met in Kosovo before independence could be negotiated. These include democratic institutions, human rights and the rule of law. This became the “standards before status” policy.

The changed situation in Kosovo meant Albanians would now have responsibility for the 100,000 strong Serb minority. But the latest report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan debated at the Security Council said progress in many areas remained insufficient.

“None of the eight standards has been completely fulfilled,” Annan said in the report. He also warned that ethnic violence and revenge attacks have remained a threat, and that “any repeat of the March 2004 riots would set the process back.”

Mobs targeted Kosovo Serbs in March 2004, setting fire to their homes and churches. Nineteen were killed and more than a thousand injured.

“Kosovo Serbs in particular continued to consider themselves at risk,” Annan’s report said. “Their reluctance to leave their communities or to interact with members of the majority community, and vice-versa, is widening an already deep ethnic divide.”

In the face of violence and the general uncertainty, local Serbs are unwilling to participate in any dialogue or in Kosovo institutions.

A hostile stalemate now continues. Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj had told Serb media recently that Kosovo could become independent this year. “It is our vital interest that Kosovo should be independent, for we are now feeling as if we were in prison,” Haradinaj said.

His remarks came only days after the influential International Crisis Group (ICG) published a report calling for independence for Kosovo.

“Time is running out in Kosovo,” the report said. “The status quo will not hold…Kosovo Albanians are frustrated with their unresolved status, the economic situation and the problems dealing with the past. The Albanian majority expects the international community to begin delivering this year on its independence aspiration. Without such moves, it may act unilaterally.”

On the other hand Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and President Boris Tadic have said that independence for Kosovo is out of the question. Kostunica said independence “would mean serious breach of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and changing of the borders in the Balkans.”

The conservative government in Belgrade nourishes an image of Kosovo as the cradle of the Serbian medieval state. The influential Serbian Orthodox Church has asked for Kosovo and its monasteries to be proclaimed a “sacred land”, as Jerusalem is to Jews.

But papers and documents, assessments and declarations fall short of giving the picture in Kosovo.

Glimpses of this true picture emerged when Serbian President Boris Tadic visited Serb areas in Kosovo last month. About 3,000 Serb households in isolated enclaves within ethnic Albanian communities have been without electricity for months now. The official explanation is unpaid bills. Children from Serb areas still go to schools in buses escorted by NATO peacekeepers.

“There’s no way we could pay for electricity,” Stanislav Tomic from the Serb village Lipljan told IPS. “We cannot find jobs, let alone go to our fields to work in them…we fear attacks. We just sit here and do nothing.”

In the Kosovo capital Pristina where Tadic held talks with the UN administrator Soren Jessen Petersen, the bus carrying Serb and foreign reporters from Belgrade was pelted with eggs and stones. This was despite the deployment of more than 2,000 UN policemen for security during Tadic’s three-day visit.

“Kosovo is a stalemate,” Dusan Janjic, head of the independent Forum for Inter-Ethnic Relations told IPS. “It’s hard to see how the desire for, and independence per se could solve the ethnic Albanian ‘frustrations’, while at the same time Serbia has no constructive politics to deal with the problem.”

Serbian officials say they will not consider trading the independence of Kosovo for Serbian membership of the European Union (EU).