BALKANS: Kosovo Stranded Between Serbia and Independence

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Feb 5 2007 (IPS) - The long awaited United Nations proposal on the status of the southern Serbian province Kosovo takes it towards independence, but not all the way.

Submission of the plan for Kosovo by UN negotiator Martti Ahtisaari in Belgrade and in Pristina Friday provoked quite different reactions in the opposed capitals.

In Belgrade, Serbian President Boris Tadic said that “Serbia, and I as her president, will never accept Kosovo’s independence.”

Ahtisaari handed Tadic a 60-page document that stops short of defining the province as an independent state. The plan, however, provides Kosovo with the right to approach international bodies, have its own flag and national anthem, and keep a security force.

What is practically a road to independence will be overseen by the European Union mission and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military presence.

For some 80,000 Serbs surrounded by almost two million ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the plan previsions special relations with Belgrade and particular protection of Serbian Orthodox shrines.

That is not good enough for Serbian leaders. “The forced independence of Kosovo would be contrary to all the basic principles of international law and would represent a dangerous political and legal precedent,” Tadic said in a televised address to the nation.

In Pristina, Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said “Kosovo will be sovereign as any other country.” Prime Minister Agim Ceku added that “the document is very clear for Kosovo futureàthe process will end when Kosovo becomes an independent state.”

Ahtisaari told reporters in Belgrade that his “settlement package is a compromise” which is yet to be discussed by both parties. This will begin through his mediation starting Feb. 13. It will go to the UN Security Council “later this spring,” he added.

Well-informed diplomatic sources in Belgrade told IPS they expect the session to be held late March or early April.

The Serbian government could be taking a hopeless position. “Belgrade’s firm stand with a ‘never’ represents another step in the direction of not accepting political reality,” international law professor Vojin Dimitrijevic told IPS. “Kosovo was practically lost eight years ago.”

The UN took over administration of Kosovo in 1999 after NATO ended its 11 weeks of bombing of Serbia.

The bombing was undertaken due to the repressive policies of the regime of former leader Slobodan Milosevic against non-Serbs. Serb security forces evicted more than 800,000 ethnic Albanians, killing at least 10,000, in an effort to fight what was described as “terrorism” by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Among Serbs, Kosovo is regarded as the “cradle of the Serbian medieval state”, though for decades now few Serbs have lived there. Milosevic abolished its relative autonomy in 1990 and introduced direct rule by Belgrade, using the Serb minority.

Kosovo political analyst Skeljzen Malici told Belgrade media that Serbia lost Kosovo because of its attempt at ethnic cleansing.

“Kosovo is practically independent from Serbia since 1999 and the entrance of NATO. Kosovo was under jurisdiction of Belgrade for 80 years and Serbia never tried to introduce a democratic regime here, or offer some rational solution to Albanians. Serbia had to pay for such politics in the end.”

UN administration was introduced under Resolution 1244 of the Security Council.

“The new resolution following Ahtisaari’s plan will replace the 1244 and settle the issue,” analyst Milan Nikolic told Radio Television of Serbia. “This will be the final act of disintegration of former Yugoslavia that began 15 years ago.”

The former six-member federation began to fall apart in the wars of the 1990s. It produced six new states – Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

Only Macedonia and Montenegro left without wars, through referendums of separation. The one in Macedonia was held in 1992, while in Montenegro it happened last year.

But at present, independence of Kosovo is something no Serb politician is willing to accept. Serb politicians have failed to explain to the public that it will be up to the international community to decide the fate of the province ever since the talks began a year ago.

Political parties, particularly the ultranationalists, have played on the sentiment against separation of Kosovo to win votes. The ultranationalists won a substantial third of the vote in the elections Jan. 21.

The fact that it was Milosevic who bowed to conditions set by the international community on Kosovo in 1999 is now almost completely forgotten.

There is some wishful thinking in Belgrade that Russia will use the power of veto in the Security Council to deny independence for Kosovo. This is despite the fact that Russia never acted on behalf of Serbia in any international body.

It was Russian envoy Victor Chernomyrdin, together with Ahtisaari as the EU envoy who persuaded Milosevic to withdraw troops from Kosovo and allow NATO peacekeepers in.