US outlines 13 key negotiating points on Kosovo - report

SERBIANNA (USA)
November 29, 2005

United States has sent a 13 point document to the European Union representatives outlining the key negotiating points the ongoing talks on the status of the Serbian province of Kosovo must resolve, reports Serbian independent agency BETA citing confidential sources in Brussels.

The document does not specify the outcome of the talks but it does suggest the requirements that each specific point must meet.

According to the report, the US document seeks an enhanced future European role in Kosovo and a continuing presence of the NATO-led peace keepers.

Among other points that the negotiating process must settle are:

- Future Kosovo "constitution" that must include guarantees for minority participation in the institutions; citizenship regulation and methods and deadlines for the ratification of settlement acts.

- Foreign relations that includes limits and regulations; foreign representations; regional relations; customs and trade and tariff regulations.

- Legality settlement that will include limits on participation in Council of Europe and the UN and replacement of the current UN role with a "International Civilian Mission" that will manage and regulate the implementation of the status and the standard.

- Under decentralization of Kosovo the document wants a solution to the jurisdictional authority of the local governing areas, their defined borders, source of their funding, inter jurisdictional relations and a decision on whether certain decentralized units may have parallel relations with Belgrade.

- Settlement must include the Bill of Rights and an omnibudsmen that will enforce it.

- Property rights must be clarified that will solve the problem of squatting, church property and a compensation method for the persons dispossessed of their property.

- Security requirements seek to establish cooperation with Belgrade police and a decision on the status of the Kosovo Protection Corps.

- Various other issues specify solutions to the border demarcation with Macedonia, missing persons, Kosovo air space, mutual recognition of the outcome and consideration for a war damage compensation sought by Kosovo Albanians.

The document calls for a an economic recovery of the region that will include Kosovo and Serbia as well as a solution to fiscal, monetary and financial issues including foreign aid and lending, reports BETA.

AP Interview: Greek foreign minister warns ahead of Kosovo visit that peace still precarious in Balkans

Associated Press
Released : Nov 30, 2005 8:02 AM

ATHENS, Greece-Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis warned Wednesday ahead of a trip to Kosovo and Serbia next week that peace and stability remain precarious in the Balkans.

Molyviatis told The Associated Press in an interview before his Dec. 6-7 trip to Pristina and Belgrade that three separate but interrelated events taking place in the next few months could lead to an explosive mix in the Balkans.

"You need only to compare the Balkans today with the Balkans five to 10 years ago. A lot of progress has been made. However peace and stability in the Balkans is still precarious, it's not an irreversible situation. So a lot needs to be done to eliminate the potential sources of instability. At this point there are three developments going on together at the same time," Molyviatis said.

These are final status talks to determine the future of the Albanian-dominated Serbian province of Kosovo, an April referendum that could lead to Montenegro's secession from its union with Serbia, and a new constitution aimed at unifying ethnically divided Bosnia by March.

"I think the international community should be very cautious in how we handle all these developments. We should not disregard the potential threats involved in these problems, especially with regard to extreme nationalistic tendencies and feelings in the area. The international community should act in a way that would take into very serious consideration the need for security and stability in the area," Molyviatis said.

Talks on Kosovo could start as early as next month. Kosovo is formally part of Serbia-Montenegro, but it has been run by the United Nations and NATO since a 1999 NATO bombing forced Belgrade to end a crackdown against Kosovo separatists. Kosovo's ethnic Albanians are insisting on independence from Serbia, while Belgrade wants Kosovo to remain at least formally within its boundaries.

The EU has tried to talk Montenegro out of opting for secession, fearing new Balkan tensions, but Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic and Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic are committed to holding an independence referendum.

Bosnia's Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders agreed last week to strengthen the central government by amending the constitution a decade after a bloody civil war.

Molyviatis would not say if he had any new proposals to break a deadlock between the two sides in Kosovo, a province of two million people. Kosovo's Serbs number about 100,000 and live in isolated enclaves, complaining of harassment by majority ethnic Albanians. The remaining 200,000 Kosovo Serbs fled after the war.

"The Albanian element of Kosovo has never concealed the fact that they favor independence for Kosovo and the Serbs have never concealed on their part that they are against the independence of Kosovo. This is not a new development, they are well know positions of the two parties and the purpose of the whole exercise is to reconcile these two contradictory views in a manner which will not destabilize the area," Molyviatis said.

He will be accompanied on the trip by the foreign ministers of Croatia and Romania. Greece chairs the Southeast European Cooperation Process, or SEECP, which groups Romania, Greece, Serbia-Montenegro, Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.

"The purpose of the visit is to demonstrate the intense interest of the neighboring countries in determining the final status of Kosovo," Molyviatis added.

UN court jails one Kosovo Albanian, acquits two

THE HAGUE, Nov 30 (AFP)

The UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia on Wednesday jailed a former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) for 13 years but acquitted two others following the first ever trial of Kosovo Albanians before the court here in The Hague.

Haradin Bala, 48, was sentenced to 13 years for torture, cruel treatment and murder committed in the KLA-run Lapushnik prison camp.

His co-accused Fatmir Limaj, a former leader of the Kosovo Democratic Party, and Isak Musliu were found not guilty on all charges. The judges ordered their immediate release from the UN detention centre near The Hague.

Limaj's aquittal was greeted with cheers and applause from Kosovo Albanians present in the public gallery.

UN tribunal jails Kosovo Albanian

BBC, November 30, 2005

A UN court in The Hague has jailed the first Kosovo Albanian to be convicted of war crimes committed during the conflict with Serbian forces in 1998.

Haradin Bala received a 13-year jail term for torture and murder at a prison camp run by the Kosovo Liberation Army.

His alleged commander, Fatos Limaj, and co-accused, Isak Musliu, were cleared of all charges and ordered to be freed.

The UN court was set up to try war crimes and crimes against humanity from the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Several Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims have already been jailed by the court.
Mr Limaj, Mr Musliu and Haradin Bala were the first Kosovo Albanians to be indicted.
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, this week to proclaim the innocence of the three.

Final status talks

Three more Kosovo Albanians have since been indicted, including the former Prime Minister and guerrilla commander, Ramush Haradinaj, who is currently awaiting trial.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) conducted a guerrilla war against Serbian targets accused of launching a crackdown on the province's ethnic Albanian community.

A 78-day Nato air campaign in 1999 drove Serb forces out of the province.

Kosovo has since been administered by the United Nations and Nato, though it technically remains a province of Serbia.

The area's Albanian majority wants full independence - but Belgrade has said it must remain part of Serbia.

The UN envoy to the province has said talks on the future of the province must begin soon.

Ireland gives €250,000 (US$295,000) for the reconstruction of Roma houses in Kosovo

Associated Press
Released : Nov 30, 2005 6:04 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-The Irish government has donated €250,000 (US$295,000), for the reconstruction of a devastated Roma neighborhood in Kosovo, in an effort to return the displaced to their prewar homes, the United Nations announced Wednesday.

The money will be used to build nine apartment blocks, expected to house about 100 people in the so-called Roma Mahala, a neighborhood in Kosovska Mitrovica, an ethnically divided town 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the province's capital Pristina, a U.N. statement said.

More than 500 Roma, displaced from their homes at the end of Kosovo's

1998-1999 war, live in camps located near an industrial area polluted with high lead levels.

Authorities in Kosovo have been criticized for not dealing with the situation. The U.N. said a temporary relocation will be offered to the displaced before the end of the year, but has appealed to donors to help rebuild Roma homes and secure their return.

Top U.N. official Soren Jessen-Petersen, who runs the province, thanked Ireland for signing the grant agreement, the statement said.

The houses of many Roma and other minorities were destroyed in the aftermath of the war when ethnic Albanian extremists attacked minorities, seeking revenge for the killings of some 10,000 of their ethnic kin by Serb forces.

Kosovo has been run by a United Nations mission and patrolled by NATO for over six years.

Belgrade Media Update, November 30, 2005

Draskovic discusses Kosovo with Lavrov (RTS)

The SCG Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have underlined in Moscow the significance of preserving the leading role of the UN and direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina in resolving the problem of Kosovo, stated the Russian Foreign Ministry. Draskovic has underlined that cooperation with Russia plays a very important role in resolving the problem of Kosovo. Draskovic emphasized that Belgrade supports a peaceful coexistence of Serbs and Albanians in the Province and does not wish to govern the Albanian majority, but will remain firmly committed to the position that borders in the region cannot be changed. We do not wish to influence the will of the Albanians in Kosovo, but that will must not be aimed at killing and persecuting Serbs and destroying their churches and cultural monuments, Draskovic pointed out.

US on Kosovo negotiations (Beta)

The authorities in Washington do not support any particular solution for the final status of Kosovo and do not wish to publicly comment on the details of the diplomatic activities of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, the US Embassy in Belgrade announced. As stated, the solution to the status of Kosovo must strengthen regional stability, promote democratic development and contribute to the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Balkans. The US Embassy underlined that the guidelines set by the Contact Group must be acknowledged.

Calmy Rey: Switzerland supports independence of Kosovo (Tanjug/AFP)

Switzerland supports independence of Kosovo, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has stated in Bratislava. “Switzerland and Kosovo maintain intensive relations among people, because ten percent of the population from Kosovo lives in Switzerland, and if something happens in Kosovo, if there is instability in Kosovo, we will undergo consequences,” said Micheline Calmy-Rey at a joint press conference with her Slovakian counterpart Eduard Kukan, AFP reports.

Jankovic: Calmy Rey’s statement regrettable (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Advisor Vladeta Jankovic told Tanjug  that the statement of Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey in favor of formal independence of Kosovo was regrettable and deserves condemnation. “At a moment when negotiations are being conducted, and as long as the entire issue is under the jurisdiction of the world community, any prejudging of the outcome is undesirable. Special disappointment is the fact that inadequate interventions of this kind are coming from a country that represents neutrality, a symbol of non-interference into some else’s affairs,” Jankovic told Tanjug.
European Parliament preparing resolution on Kosovo (RTS/Tanjug)
The European Parliament is preparing a resolution on Kosovo, Hungarian MP and member of the Foreign Policy Committee of the European Parliament Chaba Tabaidi told Tanjug in Brussels. Tabaidi said deadlines had not been determined for preparing and adopting this document. Changing the borders in Europe is not possible, Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South East Europe Erhard Busek told Tanjug. When European perspectives are at issue, the borders will have no meaning in the future, Busek stated after the speech before the Foreign Policy Committee of the European Parliament.

EU for Albania’s constructive role in Kosovo negotiations (Tanjug)

The Chairman of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barozo and EU High Representative Javier Solana have invited Albania to play “a constructive role” during the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo. “I expect Albania’s constructive role regarding the issue of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, because stability is very important for the entire region,” Barozo told a joint press conference with Albanian Premier Sali Berisha.

Small portion of lead returned (RSCG)

UNMIK police and KPS have found and returned just a small portion of the lead plates stolen from the roof of the Holy Virgin of Ljeviska Church in Prizren, but most of it was meant for resale, announced the Kosovo Info Service. As stated, the Serbian Orthodox Church has information that this was an organized theft aimed at reselling lead, and that the perpetrators framed two minors. Bishop Teodosije has told UNMIK Head Søren Jessen-Petersen that the Serbian Orthodox Church insists that the true perpetrators of that act of vandalism must be found and punished as soon as possible.

CoE team expresses concern over frescoes (Tanjug)

The expert team of the CoE for the assessment of the state of fresco paintings in Serbian Orthodox Church monasteries in Kosovo, which were burnt or destroyed during the March violence last year, expressed deep concern over the peril for frescoes in the medieval temple of the Holy Virgin of Ljeviska in Prizren, stated the Kosovo Info Service. A general impression is very gloomy, especially in the monastery of the Holy Virgin of Ljeviska, as a large part of the roof has been recently taken from it, said Dragan Stanojevic, the Chairman of the Serbian Cultural Monument Preservation Institute. According to a CoE representative Emma Carmichael, who is chairing the Reconstruction Committee, it has been planned that the first phase of clearing the damaged facilities will be completed by the end of December, so that more intensive works on the reconstruction and restoration of damaged frescoes might begin in the spring.

Families accusing UNMIK of hiding Serb graves (Tanjug)

Milorad Trifunovic, the Coordinator of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing persons in northern Kosovo, has accused UNMIK representatives of hiding mass graves of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo. Trifunovic pointed out that out of 1,300 Serbs and other non-Albanians missing in Kosovo, only the fate of 153 was known so far, and assessed this was a result of UNMIK’s inaction and intention to cover up for Albanian crimes.

Ahtisaari: Status along with standards (Tanjug)

The UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari has stressed at the end of his first Balkan tour that status has to go along with standards and that more concrete progress is needed in the implementation of standards, reads the statement of UNMIK’s Press Service. During the visits to Belgrade, Podgorica, Pristina, Tirana and Skoplje from 21 to 27 November, Ahtisaari stressed that greater progress must be made in the fields of decentralization, return of IDPs and freedom of movement, reads the UNMIK statement.

Pak: Tadic, Kostunica and Draskovic requesting the impossible (RTS/Tanjug)

The Chairman of the Committee for South-East Europe of the European Parliament, German MP Doris Pak, has advocated conditional independence of Kosovo at the platform in Brussels entitled “Albanian Arguments for Independence,” organized by the Centre for European Political Studies (CEPS). “Vuk Draskovic, Vojislav Kostunica and Boris Tadic are requesting the impossible… It is silly to think that Belgrade can return to Kosovo,” said Pak, inviting Belgrade to “leave in peace” Kosovo Albanians so they could create a state.

Washington – 13 topics for Kosovo negotiations (RTS)

Washington has proposed to the Contact Group, the UN, the EU and NATO 13 topics and 77 individual items, which must represent the basis for negotiations on the status of Kosovo, but did not specify what the solution should be, report diplomatic sources in Brussels. In a document entitled Topics for the process of the final status of Kosovo, the US administration in Washington states that the role of the EU must be strengthened in Kosovo as well as that of the remaining KFOR and NATO forces with the same mandate, while the borders and the position of Kosovo towards Serbia and the SCG is not mentioned. Minorities are covered by a Charter on Rights, along with constitutional guarantees, links of Kosovo Serbs with Belgrade and the survival of the institution of the ombudsman. Regarding the protection of cultural heritage, the document envisages legal and physical protection of churches and monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Tadic commences consultations prior to Kosovo status negotiations (RTS)

Serbian President Boris Tadic has talked with Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus about the situation in Kosovo and the launching of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo. They stressed the necessity of a united state policy, reads the statement from the Serbian President’s cabinet. Tadic also received PSS leader Bogoljub Karic and acquainted him with “his plan of the negotiating platform on two entities in Kosovo.”

Drnovsek in Montenegro (RTS)

At a press conference held after talks with Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic in Cetinje, Drnovsek said that Kosovo’s independence was a reality, and that his statements were misinterpreted, as he spoke of conditional five-year independence. The proposal envisaged that the majority Albanian population guarantees living conditions to Serbs and other minorities. According to that proposal, the international community would be re-assessing after five years whether the conditions are fulfilled, said Drnovsek. Several hundred supporters of certain opposition parties in Montenegro protested against Drnovsek’s visit to Montenegro.

Requests to ICTY for releasing Limaj, Balaj and Musliu (RSCG)

Several thousand citizens from all parts of Kosovo peacefully protested in the streets of Pristina, requesting the release of Fatmir Limaj, Isak Musliu and Haradin Balaj, indicted before the ICTY for crimes during the conflict in Kosovo. The protest was organized by associations created from the former KLA and the Union of Independent Students of the Pristina University. It was announced that the verdict will be passed in ICTY on 30 November against Limaj, Musliu and Balaj, indicted for the murder of 22 Albanian and Serb civilians and illegal imprisonment and torture of civilians in the Lapusnik camp near Glogovac in the summer of 1998.

KLA members set Kosovo state flag on fire (Tanjug)

After the decision of the president of the Pristina municipality, Ismet Beciri, on the occasion of Albanian Flag Day, the so-called flags of the Kosovo state, promoted by Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, were publicly promoted. Unsatisfied with that, members of associations stemming from the KLA removed the flags and set them publicly on fire, in protest against the fact that the flags differ to the Albanian national flag.

Flag Day marked in southern Serbia (RTS)

Albanian political representatives in southern Serbia requested the right to officially use the Albanian language and national symbols. These requests were made at a ceremony in Bujanovac, where Albanians from southern Serbia marked 28 November, the Flag Day, the national holiday of the Republic of Albania. After the gathering at the Bujanovac Cultural Center, about a thousand Albanians walked through the city center, and the police stopped a group from bringing the Albanian flag into the municipal building.