By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Mar 25 2008 (IPS)

Serbia is looking for United Nations approval of its plan for “functional separation” between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, after the breakaway province declared unilateral independence last month.

Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic confirmed to Serbian media that he handed over the plan to the deputy head of UN administration in Kosovo Larry Rossin ten days ago in Kosovo capital Pristina. He also confirmed it was a part of the so far secret ‘action plan’ that had been drawn up by the Serbian government in anticipation of unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

“The key point is to create a functional separation of Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo,” Samardzic told pro-government Politika daily. According to Samardzic, the plan deals with all Serbian municipalities and settlements in the province.

Kosovo is home to some two million people, 90 percent of them ethnic Albanians, and the rest Serbs, Roma and other minorities. Some 100,000 Serbs live mostly in the north of Kosovo, close to the border with Serbia proper. Another 30,000 are scattered in enclaves all over Kosovo.

“If they (United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK) want peace and stability, they have to reach a sustainable agreement, and not just to extinguish fire with violence every two days,” Samardzic said.

He was referring to the wave of violence in the north since Kosovo declared independence Feb. 17. The worst of the violence came on Monday Mar. 17, when Serb protestors clashed with UNMIK police in Mitrovica town. A Ukrainian member of the UN police was killed and more than 150 people – among them 64 international security personnel – were injured.

Goran Svilanovic, who was the first post-Milosevic foreign minister, told IPS Belgrade’s proposal “does open the subject of separation, but it does not involve territorial division. It is a form of non-territorial federation, which might be a kind of solution for Kosovo problems.”

UNMIK spokesman Gyorgy Kakuk told Serbian media that the mission has sent the proposal to the UN headquarters in New York.

“UNMIK cannot make any decisions on this proposal and has sent the entire text to New York. They will have to decide and advise UNMIK how to react,” Kakuk said. He added that the exact date for an answer from the UN is unknown.

The proposal calls for the recently created Serbian Ministry for Kosovo Office to be recognised as an official partner in administration in Kosovo. The declared goal of the Office is to “facilitate a development programme for Kosovo, and cooperate with UNMIK and KFOR (Kosovo Force, some 16,000 troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO).”

The document says that Belgrade recognises UN jurisdiction in Kosovo, but practically provides that only Serbs, and not ethnic Albanians, can control police, judiciary and border customs services in about 15 percent of Kosovo where Serbs represent a majority.

“UNMIK and Serbia agree to intensify cooperation in the sectors of police, judiciary, customs, transport, control of the administrative line between Kosovo and central Serbia, and protection of religious and cultural heritage,” the proposal says. Being once the cradle of the medieval Serbian state, Kosovo is home to some of the oldest and most beautiful Orthodox Churches and monasteries in the region.

Serb police officers in Kosovo will “answer to local Serb authorities and will be under UNMIK police command,” and Kosovo Serbs would have the right to conduct their own court proceedings, under the proposal. UNMIK judges would take over cases where members of other ethnicities are involved.

Serbia and UNMIK would undertake an obligation to contribute to free trade between Kosovo and other parts of the country, and no trading barriers would be raised. “If a third party were to establish some form of a trade barrier, Kosovo Serbs will have the right to set up their own customs authority,” the proposal says.

“The religious, historic and cultural heritage will be supervised in cooperation between UNMIK and Serbia, and these forces will be established as soon as possible, with the goal of becoming operational by May 2008,” the document says.

The proposal has provoked controversial reactions among diplomats and analysts in Belgrade and in Pristina.

A Western diplomat, who insisted on anonymity, told IPS that “the plan represents an effort by Belgrade to take political and administrative control in areas where Serbs are a majority” and that “this goes against international efforts which see Kosovo as a single state; this also amounts to a move towards partition.”

The plan was, as expected, widely criticised by Pristina media and officials. Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Ram Manaj said the proposal was “unacceptable, as it looks like continued politics of hegemony by Belgrade.”

Serbia imposed direct rule over Kosovo almost 20 years ago, which led to repression against the ethnic Albanian majority in the province in the 1990s. Their armed rebellion aiming for independence was brutally suppressed by former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks in 1999 to end this suppression. The UN and KFOR took over in 1999, when Milosevic agreed to withdraw all Serbian security forces from the province. Milosevic fell from power in 2000.

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