BALKANS: UN Gives Green Light on Kosovo Talks

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Oct 25 2005 (IPS) - The United Nations Security Council’s endorsement of talks on the political future of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo provides a new foothold for efforts to resolve one of the Balkan region’s thorniest problems.

While ethnic Albanians, or Kosovars, want nothing less than independence, Serbia warns that carving out an independent state from its territory could create a situation that destabilises the Balkans.

“A period of hard and difficult talks is ahead of us,” Serbian President Boris Tadic told a Belgrade press conference, adding that he would defend the legitimate Serbian state and national interests.

Issued late Monday night, the UN Security Council’s presidential statement announcing the talks on Kosovo said, “The time has come to move to the next phase of the political process,” and described the challenges ahead as “difficult”.

The options, due to be solved in talks, are either the independence of Kosovo or broad autonomy within Serbia. Negotiations are expected to start next month and to last a year.

The process is widely expected to result in some form of independence, with a continuing role for foreign peacekeepers to prevent further outbreaks of violence in the province. Since 1999, the UN has administered Kosovo, home to almost two million ethnic Albanians.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan confirmed to reporters in New York that he would appoint former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari as his special envoy for the talks.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, in his address to the Security Council, stressed that “any solution must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and Montenegro as an internationally recognised state.”

Foreign policy adviser to Kostunica, Vladeta Jankovic, warned in a recent interview that partition of Serbian territory to create an independent Kosovo state “would be a dangerous precedent.”

“It would be a threat to the future of the region… No state would agree to have a part of its territory simply taken away,” he said.

Under the Security Council’s Resolution 1244, the UN and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) peacekeeping troops entered the province in June 1999.

They took over after 11 weeks of NATO bombing of Serbia, a response to the repressive policies of then-president Slobodan Milosevic against Kosovars. Resolution 1244 described Kosovo as an integral part of what at the time was known as Yugoslavia, and then became the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro two years ago.

Milosevic’s security forces evicted more than 800,000 people from their homes and more than 10,000 were killed in operations that lasted more than a year prior to the NATO bombing. Serbia saw the armed independence movement of Kosovars as terrorism and separatism.

Since 1999, with the help of UN and the international community, Kosovars have established basic state institutions. Parliamentary and presidential elections were held and a local police force has been created. However, no multiethnic society in any form can be found in the province.

The population of the Kosovo Serb community there fell from 300,000 to less than 100,000, as many left the area out of fear of reprisals by ethnic Albanians. The remaining Serbs live mostly in northern Kosovo.

Regardless of the outcome of the talks, problems thrive in Kosovo. Kai Aide, the UN envoy who reported on the situation on the ground ahead of the Security Council session, noted that “the inter-ethnic relations were worrisome” and that the work of the Kosovo police and judiciary should remain under observation “for a very long time.”

The question of freedom movement in the province remains, as Serbs are often targets of assassinations, kidnappings or other forms of intimidation. They deeply mistrust the UN and NATO peacekeepers, complaining that the see little protection.

The Security Council last night called for protection of minorities, rule of law and creating the necessary conditions to allow a sustainable return of the Serbs who fled.

But in recent times, even NATO troops have been targets of attacks by armed groups of Kosovars. Local newspapers said they were members of the “Kosovo Independence Army”, impatient to see the process finalised.

NATO played down the attacks. It admitted that “armed groups” in western Kosovo were stopping and searching cars at night, but dismissed reports of a new rebel army in the province.

Illegal checkpoints were the early signs of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that emerged in 1998 and launched a guerrilla war against Milosevic’s security forces.

Indeed, an order is in force for UN staff and NATO troops to avoid travel on Kosovo roads at night.

NATO and UN officials alike are reluctant to talk about what Kosovo has turned into in the past six years.

Corruption, human trafficking, smuggling of arms and all kinds of contraband mark everyday life of the province, they admit in private. However, none would comment on why the international presence did not prevent such developments.

Meanwhile, some of the 7.5 million Serbs in Serbia proper have a soft spot for Kosovo, as it used to be the cradle of the Serbian medieval state. Standing testimony to that are hundreds of Orthodox Church monasteries, some dating back to the 12th century.

“That is an irrational, emotionally blurred picture, despite the traumatic experiences of punishment by NATO in 1999,” says historian Predrag Markovic. “A few are ready to admit that things can never be the same as before. But sooner or later, pragmatism and reality will have to take over.”

All of the public opinion surveys show that less than 10 percent of Serbs support the idea of Kosovo independence. All of the opinion polls in Kosovo show that Kosovars want nothing less than independence.

It remains to be seen how the UN-led talks can bring these two completely different stands to a compromise.