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| July 28, 2005 KiM-Info Newsletter 28-07-05 Pristina, 28 July (AKI) - The UN envoy to Kosovo has said he is disappointed with the situation in the province, which has been under UN control since 1999, and that “additional progress” was needed before the talks on the final status of Kosovo could begin. Kai Eide, is expected to submit a report to the Security Council and to UN secretary general Kofi Annan in September on implementation of the human rights and democratic standards set by the international community as a precondition for the talks. In an interview to Swiss news organization ISN Security Watch, Eide said some progress has been achieved in creating a legal framework in Kosovo, but he voiced a disappointment with slow return of refugees and general security situation. “Frankly, I wish I had seen more progress and more maturity by the Kosovo leaders”, said the Norwegian diplomat. In his words, the basic need was to create a political environment which would stimulate the return of refugees. “I don’t think that it exists in Kosovo”, he added. Over 200.000 Serbs and other non-Albanians have fled Kosovo since 1999, and remaining demands independence. Ethnic Albanians, who make up a 1.7 million majority, want independence for the former Yugoslav province.
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, July 28 (Reuters) - Kosovo's international backers have criticised its ethnic Albanian leaders for not doing enough to improve minority rights, a key condition of negotiations on the province's future. "We are deeply concerned by the lack of political will and commitment to improving the lot of Kosovo's minority communities," the Contact Group of major Western powers and Russia said in a letter to Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi. Dated July 26 and quoted in Pristina daily Express on Thursday, the letter -- seen by Reuters -- is part of a drive to squeeze more progress from the government before a decision on whether "final status" negotiations should begin this year. The 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority demands independence from Serbia, six years after becoming a U.N. protectorate when NATO bombers drove out Serb forces. But the United Nations says it wants progress on democracy and minority rights, particularly in decentralising powers to Serbs, who shun the Pristina authorities and continue to live in isolated enclaves watched over by NATO-led peacekeepers. That progress has been stalled by ethnic Albanians reluctant to concede too much ahead of negotiations or play into the hands of those in favour of partitioning Kosovo. U.N. envoy Kai Eide is expected to submit a report by September on whether talks should begin, possibly in October. Analysts warn of a repeat of fatal Kosovo-wide riots against minorities in March last year should negotiations be delayed. "The pace of progress has declined in recent months," says the letter signed by John Sawyer, political director of the British foreign office, on behalf of the Contact Group -- the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia. "Six years after the conflict, the process to re-integrate Kosovo's minorities into communities has been too slow." The outcome of Eide's review "is not a foregone conclusion" and Kosovo leaders must "re-double their efforts", it says. The letter follows similar criticism from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who complained last week in Pristina of a "slowdown" in progress. Washington has already signalled it wants a decision on the last unresolved issue from the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It has warned the status quo is not sustainable. Belgrade says its southern province of 2 million people is the cradle of the Serb nation and can never become independent. If Eide's review is positive, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will appoint a special envoy for what could be six to nine months of shuttle diplomacy between Belgrade and Pristina. Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after Western powers accused its forces of brutal atrocities against civilians as they fought to crush a separatist insurgency.
B92, Belgrade PRISTINA -- Wednesday - Representatives of the minority communities in Kosovo are accusing the Kosovo government of ignoring the work of the Minorities Interest Council as well as the return effort. Council President Randjel Nojkic said that the government is not showing enough readiness to seriously begin facing the problem of returning refugees to the region. "The real question is, are those people calling for the return of refugees really interested in returning people to their homes or are they just spouting rhetoric, so that it would appear that standards have been implemented, but they will be fulfilled only at the moment where actual return efforts will be visible. For now, this is not the case." Nojkic said. President of the Democratic Action Party of Kosovo, Numan Balic, said that the individual representatives of the minority communities who are participating in government coalitions are satisfied with the relations that the government is showing towards their communities so that is why not much attention has been paid to the work of the council. "Five or six communities are not satisfied with their representation in the Kosovo institutions and parliament. That is the basis of our standard complaints. The Commission for Legal and Community Issues is not equal in importance to the rest of the parliamentary commissions, however." Balic said. The press conference was not attended by council members from Albanian parties, or by the six plus group, which represents non-Serbian minority groups and is part of the ruling coalition.
UN complains of funding gap for Kosovo repatriation
But the U.N. official working on the issue with the mainly ethnic Albanian government said international funding had fallen away. "We have totally insufficient funds available," said Killian Kleinschmidt, acting head of the returns office within the U.N. mission that has run Serbia's southern province since 1999. New returns projects "require an additional 22 million euros, today," he told reporters. Of an estimated 180,000 Serbs and other ethnic minorities who fled after the war, just 13,000 people have returned, a figure often cited by Serbia as evidence of the lack of basic minority rights. Most fled in the months following the end of the war, when NATO bombers drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities against civilians as they fought to crush a rebel insurgency. Ethnic minorities became the target of Albanian revenge attacks and the 100,000 who chose to stay continue to live in isolated enclaves with restricted freedom of movement. The 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority hopes to win formal independence in U.N.-mediated talks expected later this year. U.N. envoy Kai Eide is reviewing whether sufficient progress has been made on democracy and minority rights -- including the right to return -- for those talks to begin, possibly in October, or be postponed. Analysts warn delay could spark unrest. Kleinschmidt blamed the lack of funding on messages being sent from Pristina and Belgrade that it is either too early to repatriate refugees or that they have nothing to return to. "This is exactly the message that Ambassador Kai Eide and others are listening to, and it is exactly the message that the donors are listening to," he warned.
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