Serbian PM to head Serbian delegation at U.N. session next week

Associated Press
Released : Oct 19, 2005 2:43 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro-Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will head Serbia's delegation at a key U.N. Security Council session on Kosovo next week and will insist that the troubled province remains within Serbia, government officials said Thursday.

The Security Council was expected to announce the start, possibly already next month, of the U.N.-mediated talks between Kosovo Albanian and Serbian officials on the province's demands for independence.

"Kostunica will say that Kosovo should remain a part of Serbia," said Kostunica's political adviser Aleksandar Simic. "Changing borders in Europe would be a dangerous precedent."

Kosovo has been under U.N. administration and patrolled by NATO since the alliance's 1999 air war that stopped former President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

The province's ethnic Albanian majority wants independence, while its Serb minority wants it to remain part of Serbia.

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari is tipped as the most likely candidate to head the U.N.'s shuttle diplomacy but has faced objections from Belgrade.

Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said Wednesday that Serbia would announce its team for the upcoming U.N.-mediated negotiations shortly after the Oct. 24 Security Council session on the southern province.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian President Ibrahim Rugova last month appointed the province's team for those negotiations but Serbia has failed to announce its own team, prompting speculation of discord in government ranks.

"Our negotiating team will include all of Serbia, Serbs from Kosovo and also officials from (Serbia-Montenegro) union," Draskovic said.

Referring to allies of former Serbian strongman Milosevic and those linked to years of his misrule, Draskovic warned that "some in Serbia are not welcome" in the team.

"To include anyone who contributed to our national collapse in the 1990s would be like sticking a thorn into our own eyes," Draskovic said.

Draskovic also said, reiterating Serbia's proposal for Kosovo's future as a "formula that is less than independence but more than autonomy."

Minister: Serbia to announce its team for Kosovo talks after U.N. session next week

Associated Press
Released : Oct 19, 2005 8:55 AM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro-Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said Wednesday that Serbia would announce its team for the upcoming U.N.-mediated negotiations on Kosovo's final status shortly after the Security Council session on the southern province next week.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian President Ibrahim Rugova last month appointed the province's team for those negotiations but Serbia has failed to announce its own team, prompting speculation of discord in government ranks.

The negotiations are expected to start later this year after Secretary-General Kofi Annan approved a report saying Kosovo had shown enough progress for the talks to be able to start.

"Our negotiating team will include all of Serbia, Serbs from Kosovo and also officials from (Serbia-Montenegro) union," Draskovic said.

Referring to allies of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and those linked to years of his misrule, Draskovic warned that "some in Serbia are not welcome" in the team.

"To include anyone who contributed to our national collapse in the 1990s would be like sticking a thorn into our own eyes," Draskovic said.

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari is tipped as the most likely candidate to head the U.N.'s shuttle diplomacy but has faced objections from Belgrade.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will attend the Oct. 24 meeting on Kosovo at the U.N. Security Council, Draskovic also said, reiterating Serbia's proposal for Kosovo's future as a "formula that is less than independence but more than autonomy."

Kosovo has been under U.N. administration and patrolled by NATO since the alliance's 1999 air war that stopped Milosevic's crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians. The province's ethnic Albanian majority wants independence, while its Serb minority wants it to remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia.

Status talks to begin soon

(BetaWeek, Belgrade, October 20)

The U.N. Security Council will discuss at its next session in New York, on Oct. 24, a report by Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, whom U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had appointed to assess the situation in Kosovo and decide if it would be reasonable to start talks on Kosovo's future status. It is almost certain that the Security Council will approve the negotiations. The situation in Kosovo and preparations for the talks have been monitored by the Contact Group, composed of representatives of the United States, Russia, Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain. None of them criticized the idea that the talks should begin. The Contact Group believes that limited or conditional independence is still the preferable solution for Kosovo. Analysts say that a few sentences from U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns's speech last week in Kosovo made that pretty obvious. He repeated it was high time that the Kosovo crisis was addressed properly, and that the people in Kosovo, six years after a military intervention, had the right to know what kind of society they would live in. Burns said it was absolutely critical to shape the future of Kosovo by the will of the people. If the Security Council decided that the Kosovo status talks should begin, the U.N. secretary general would set the date and appoint a U.N. envoy for the talks. Finish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari is still the likeliest candidate for the post. The other candidates include Carl Bildt, Giuliano Amato and George Robertson. Diplomatic sources in Brussels say that the chief international negotiator will be able to rely on his assistants from the European Union, the United States and Russia. Pristina-based media reported Stefan Lehne might be the Union's choice, and sources from Brussels believe the U.S. would nominate diplomat James Dobbins. A candidate from Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration hasn't been mentioned yet.

Pristina

For the time being, there is no good reason to believe that the two sides will be ready for a serious compromise, which might facilitate a quick and lasting agreement. Kosovo Albanians, on the face of things, will join the talks better prepared than the Serb side. They have already appointed a negotiating team headed by Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, which also includes Kosovo Speaker Nexhat Daci, Premier Bajram Kosumi, president of the largest Albanian opposition party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi and the ORA party leader, Veton Surroi. However, the team was formed under strong international pressures, and some analysts in Pristina actually believe the Albanian side is not exactly ready for the talks. The team demonstrated unity among key Albanian leaders in the eyes of the public, but a strong animosity between Rugova's Democratic Alliance of Kosovo and Ramush Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo hasn't softened. This rivalry could pose a serious obstacle in the negotiating process, particularly when it comes to concessions. The Albanian side will have to take into account the increasingly evident presence of extremist groups in Kosovo. Ahead of the future status talks, armed groups of people in uniforms turned up in the west and southwest of Kosovo, stopping cars and distributing leaflets advocating independence. KFOR confirmed their existence and made it clear that the activity of these groups was illegal. UNMIK advised its officers against using the roads near Klina, Pec, Decane, Orahovac, Djakovica, Suva Reka, Prizren and Dragas at night.

Belgrade

Belgrade does not want the talks to begin so soon, because of the humiliating position of the Serb minority in the province. Belgrade still advocates the formula "more than autonomy, less than independence." In all likelihood, delegates from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro at the Security Council session in New York will be headed by Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica. Sources close to the Serbian government say that Kostunica enters the talks with the clear position that the status issue was imposed from the outside. The Serb side will try to start a debate on the situation in the province and the status of the Serb minority, standing a slim chance of postponing the talks. The authorities in Belgrade do not think the fact that the Albanian negotiating team is in place and Belgrade's is not to be "a problem at all." A source in the ruling coalition says that the sequence of its moves will depend on the developments at the Security Council session and after it. The ruling coalition believes a debate on Kosovo's status cannot possibly begin before the end of November, even if everything goes as smoothly as the advocates of an early beginning desire. Hence the belief that Belgrade has plenty of time to prepare. At this point it is still unclear whether Belgrade will include opposition representatives in its team, as the Albanians did. There are no major discrepancies on Kosovo between Serbian leading parties. They invariably believe independence is not an option, insisting that the Serb population and interests in the province should be protected. None of them, however, has offered a plan of action to achieve that.

US says Kosovo status quo 'cannot be sustained'

Agence France Presse (AFP)
Wed Oct 19, 1:46 PM ET

The situation in Kosovo, where UN and NATO missions are trying to keep the peace between ethnic Albanian and Serbians, cannot be sustained and must be changed through pivotal negotiations next month, a top US official said.

"There is no question that the status quo cannot be sustained and it has to be changed," Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, told reporters at the US embassy in Paris.

A UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Monday would ask UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint a special UN envoy to handle negotiations, which will determine the future of the territory, he said.

"The Kosovo final status talks should begin in the month of November," Burns said, adding that he would be appointed the US negotiator.

"We don't know where this process is going to lead, but it has to lead to something better than the status quo that has not been conducive to either stability or peace in Kosovo over the course of the past several years."

The "US very firmly supports" the talks, he said.

Kosovo, technically part of Serbia, has been under UN administration since June 1999 when NATO forced Serbian armed forces to cease their crackdown on ethnic Albanians and to withdraw from the territory.

Since then, NATO peacekeepers, including US and French troops, have been trying to maintain peace amid frequent flare-ups of violence between the ethnic Albanians and the dwindling ethnic Serbian minority.

The ethnic Albanians are seeking full independence, but that has been rejected by Belgrade.

Burns said the issue was one of several he discussed with French officials during his one-day trip to Paris.

The head of the UN mission in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen, said in neighbouring Albania Wednesday that "we have all come to the conclusion that after six years ... the status quo is no longer tenable."

He confirmed that the UN Security Council session next week would set a timetable for the negotiations and that they would begin next month.

"There is an absolute agreement throughout the region, Europe and the world that the Kosovo that emerges from the decision (about its) status must be a stable, tolerant, multi-ethnic and democratic Kosovo," Petersen said.

U.S. Pressuring Balkan States to Support Kosovo Independence - Sources

October 20, 2005. -- Official Kosovo Albanian sources in Pristina have said that the U.S. is exerting pressure on Macedonia and Montenegro to express public support for Kosovo's independence and thereby isolate Serbia in its position against Kosovo's independence.

One of the criteria for determining future status of Serbian Kosovo province is, according to the US Under-Secretary Nicholas Burns, a position of the neighboring states.

Kosovo Albanian sources have indicated that the prime ministers of Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro might publicly embrace the prospect of an independent Kosovo at a joint meeting before November 10th, when status talks are expected to begin.

Prime Minister of Macedonia, Vlado Buckovski, said that he is unaware of a joint statement but intends to visit Pristina.

"I was reassured by our friends from Pristina that they would respect the territorial integrity of Macedonia," Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski said late Tuesday. "[I]t is becoming evident that the Republic of Macedonia and its territorial integrity and sovereignty are not threatened by Kosovo's eventual final status," Buckovski added.

Macedonia has expressed concern that an independent Kosovo may be a springboard for future violent division of their state along ethnic lines where a large ethnic Albanian minority has already fomented violence under pretext of obtaining more rights.

This weekend, Buckovski will meet with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha to discuss issues of territorial integrity. Berisha has already met with the Kosovo's UN administrator Sřren Jessen-Petersen as well as Montenegro authorities.

On Sunday, Buckovski will go to Washington where he is expected to declare that Macedonia has dramatically improved its communications with Kosovo Albanian authorities.

Kosovo Albanian Assembly Speaker Nexhat Daci recently told the visiting Slovene Ambassador to the OSCE Janez Lenarcic, that a territorial break up of Serbia that will grant independence to Kosovo will not be negotiated by anyone and is the interest of stability of the region. During the visit, Kosovo Albanian authorities also declared that they support Macedonian territorial integrity.

President of Slovenia recently expressed an opinion that independence is the only solution to Kosovo's unresolved status.

Status of Kosovo became a question only after the conclusion of NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999.

October 20, 2005. 11:47 AM (15:47 GMT)

Hague court bids to rein in former Kosovo PM

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND SECURITY NETWORK (SWITZERLAND)

(By Tim Judah in London)

ISN SECURITY WATCH (20/10/05) - Prosecutors at the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) late on Wednesday lodged an excoriating appeal to prevent Kosovo's former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj from returning to political life.

The appeal was couched in unusually strong language and noted angrily that despite being indicted for extremely serious crimes, Haradinaj was gradually "being reinstated as a key player in the political scene in Kosovo".

Hague prosecutors said they would submit more evidence to the Appeals Chamber on Thursday or at the very latest on Friday. However, the contents of these submissions are to remain confidential as potential witnesses could be identified if they were made public.

Haradinaj, 37, is a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK/KLA). His indictment, along with that of two subordinates, was made public last March. It accused the three men of 37 counts of abduction, murder, torture, and "ethnic cleansing", committed against Serbs, Roma, and fellow Albanians in 1998.

When his indictment was made public, Haradinaj was prime minister of Kosovo and was widely acclaimed as having achieved much during the 100 days he was in office. On his departure for The Hague, Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), publicly lamented the fate of his "close partner and friend".

On 6 June, Haradinaj was released from custody pending trial. The terms of his conditional release allowed him to pursue limited work within his own party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. Haradinaj's defense team then asked for these terms to be relaxed, a proposal supported by UNMIK.

On 14 October, the UN Tribunal agreed, saying: "The accused may appear in public and engage in public political activities to the extent which UNMIK finds would be important for a positive development of the political and security situation in Kosovo."

On 17 October, the prosecution succeeded in stopping this, pending further submissions, the major one having come late on Wednesday.

In its appeal, the prosecution says that the lifting of restrictions - which would not, however, permit Haradinaj to become prime minister again while he awaits trial - creates "a terrible perception" for victims and witnesses and an impression of unfairness, since similar privileges have not been granted to other indictees.

The prosecution says that if upheld, the decision to allow Haradinaj to return to politics would strike fear among his victims and witnesses, who would gain the impression that "power still resides in the hands of the accused".

They also reminded the judges of the so-called Dukagjini Case, in which at least five witnesses in a case of murder involving Haradinaj's brother Daut and his co-accused, Idriz Balaj, were killed.

No date has been set for the Appeals Chamber to make a final adjudication on the case, but it is expected within the next few weeks.

The fact that UNMIK has lobbied hard for the relaxation of Haradinaj's terms of release confirms stories circulating in Pristina that the UN and Western diplomats are keen to have Haradinaj play a key political role in the coming months.

Kosovo is now entering a particularly tense period, as talks on its future status are likely to begin by December.

Haradinaj's successor as prime minister is Bajram Kosumi. However, not having been a guerrilla commander, his authority is limited and his administration has been weakened by media reports of alleged corruption.

One diplomat who deals with Kosovo told ISN Security Watch that he believed that Haradinaj could "play a useful role in terms of telling hardliners he knows to stay calm".

Agron Bajram, the editor of the daily newspaper Koha Ditore, told ISN Security Watch that he, like most Kosovo Albanians, would be "delighted" if Haradinaj could return to politics, because he had been a "much-needed" figure while in power and could play a major role in unifying the Albanian side during the upcoming talks on Kosovo's future.

By contrast, Dusan Batakovic, a senior advisor on Kosovo to Serbian President Boris Tadic, told ISN Security Watch: "We see this as appalling.

This unbalanced approach to indictees of different sides is a sending a very wrong message to both Serbs and Albanians."

What is clear is that since Haradinaj's release, the UN and diplomats in Kosovo have courted him in ways that would have been deemed outrageous and inappropriate if the indictee had been a Serb or Croat.

For example, on 26 September, a huge party was held at the Hotel Grand in Pristina to celebrate the wedding of Haradinaj's brother. Among the guests were deputy UNMIK chief Larry Rossin and other senior officials and diplomats.

Haradinaj is frequently seen dining in fashionable restaurants in Pristina with foreign guests, who also visit him at his home in the village of Gllogjan.

Oddly, considering the alleged power and influence of Haradinaj, armed men in masks and uniforms have recently begun setting up checkpoints and searching cars not far from Gllogjan.

The Kosovar Albanian press has reported that a group calling itself "The Army for Kosovo's Independence" has threatened UN officials with death and kidnapping if they act in any way to prevent Kosovo's independence.

Officials from the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) have said they were only aware of criminal activities.

Kosovo: Impunity for Graft

TRANSITIONS ONLINE (CZECH REPUBLIC)

by Fatmire Terdevci
20 October 2005

Impunity rules in Kosovo, where corruption allegations against top officials emerge almost daily.

PRISTINA, Kosovo | The prime minister of Kosovo, Bajram Kosumi, didn't seem uncomfortable at all when asked by reporters who had paid for his ride on a private plane. "My friends paid for it," he said.

Kosumi flew home in the jet from an early-September holiday in Turkey after he had missed an earlier commercial flight. Since he had a meeting with the UN special envoy to Kosovo, Kai Eide, scheduled for the next day, he hired a private plane to fly him to Pristina instead - at a cost of around 20,000 euros.

This information was confirmed by officials at Pristina airport, who also provided more details. They said that the Turkish business aviation company Bon Air authorized the Cessna 550 to fly to Pristina.

But when the media got wind of the story, Kosumi was in trouble and had to come up with a better explanation. A few days after his return, he said that the flight had been paid for by some businessmen whose names he did not reveal. Two days after that, he named his environment and spatial planning minister, who had spent his holiday with the prime minister in Turkey.

"When I said that my return was made possible through some friends of mine I had in mind Minister Ethem Ceku and his family business. On no occasion, not then nor today, did I think that the joint usage of a favor coming from this old family friend would be considered as corruption," a press release issued by his office said.

The same press release said that the media campaign against him was intended to denigrate the great achievements of his government.

The opposition called for the prime minister's resignation over his "unacceptable" and "irresponsible" actions.

THE POLITICAL CALCULUS

Bajram Kosumi, a senior member of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), was appointed prime minister after his predecessor Ramush Haradinaj was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) earlier this year.

Kosovo's government emerged after last year's election and includes the province's largest political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) led by President Ibrahim Rugova, and the AAK as junior partner.

The second political force in Kosovo, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), went into opposition after the election. With the PDK and the new party Ora forming a robust opposition, the government has been challenged on many counts, not least over corruption. The PDK exploited this issue when it set up a shadow cabinet focusing on issues of good governance and graft.

By using a private plane paid for by "a friend," many critics say Kosumi may have violated the new anti-corruption law, which entered into force on 22 April this year.

The law defines as a serious act of corruption the acceptance of any sum above 10,000 euros by an official. The law also details the value of gifts that an official can accept: birthday gifts and similar presents must not exceed the amount of 50 euros each and any one person cannot give gifts valued at more than 100 euros per year.

But the prime minister's case, while high profile, is only one among many.

A DEEP PROBLEM

Two years ago, the minister of economy and finance in the previous government, Ali Sadriu, allocated 430,000 euros to his nephew for implementing a dentistry project in the town of Ferizaj. By doing so, he apparently broke his own rules, as the project was eligible to receive financing only from the municipal budget, not the ministry. The project was never implemented, the nephew resigned from his post as director of the dentistry department at Ferizaj's hospital, and the reporter who broke the story was banned from entering the premises of the ministry for almost two years, until a new minister took office.

Local media also reported that the current trade and industry minister, Bujar Dugolli, appointed his father-in-law to the post of chair of the Council for the Regulation of the Petroleum Sector, which is part of the ministry.

A few days after publication of the article, Dugolli's father-in-law was removed from his position, but he remains a member of the council.

Even the presidency finds itself embroiled in rumors of corruption. Last spring one daily said the government had purchased six vehicles for 1.5 million euros, more than twice the true value. The deal was allegedly arranged by a car dealership owned by a relative of President Rugova.

According to a survey by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 80 percent of Kosovo's people consider corruption the main problem of everyday life. Named as the most corrupt institutions were the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK), customs service, hospitals, the presidency, and the government.

Respondents to the survey also pointed to corruption among the international organizations that oversee the province's public administration.

In 2003, a former UN official, Joe Trutschler, was accused of misusing European funds dedicated to the Kosovo Energy Corporation. He was sentenced in Germany to three and a half years in prison for embezzling 3.9 million euros from the KEK budget.

Trutschler remains the only member of the international mission in Kosovo found guilty on corruption charges so far.

In April 2004, two local officials of Kosovo Post and Telecom (KPT), Leme Xhema and Bedri Rama, were arrested along with their international advisor, Uno Nielsen. They were under suspicion of corruption and of signing contracts that were harmful to the KPT. The former deputy head of the UN mission (UNMIK), Gerhard Fischer, and a former high official of the Department of Transport and Communication, Ranier Lesar, were also under investigation.

After months of investigation, the case was suddenly dropped - even though the media published facsimiles of the contracts that clearly showed many irregularities.

This impunity extends to international as well as local officials. Despite almost daily media reports on graft involving prominent officials, none of these cases has ended up in court. "A court cannot deal with a minister involved in a corruption case, as he is protected institutionally. The government should deal with the ministers, but this is not happening because there is no political will," Jetmir Balaj, the head of the non-governmental organization Forum, told TOL.

Two years ago Forum started a project to monitor the customs service, which Balaj says was fairly free of corruption at the time. No longer, he says, telling how he was once personally asked to pay a 20-euro bribe to a customs officer.

It is this deficit of political will, Balaj says, that is pushing Kosovo deeper and deeper into corruption. He fears that even the Kosovo police, an organization he considers to be fairly clean, may soon succumb to temptation.

The situation is also demoralizing for journalists tracking corruption in high places. "It is frustrating when you do your best to make public the corruption among officials, but once the story is published nobody pursues the matter," Arbana Xharra of the daily Koha ditore told TOL.

For many, the culture of corruption in Kosovo is the result of the very low salaries of staff in the public sector.

A university teacher receives 170 euros a month, about the same as a nurse, while a doctor gets slightly more.

"Of course people are prone to corruption when they cannot support their families with the incomes they receive," says Luljeta Gashi, a hospital nurse in Pristina and a mother of two who complains that she can hardly give her children what they need for school.

Fatmire Terdevci is TOL's correspondent in Pristina.

Kosovo: Freedom to Talk

TRANSITIONS ONLINE (CZECH REPUBLIC)

by Fatmire Terdevci
20 October 2005

Talks on Kosovo's future are set to begin within weeks, with tensions in the province on the rise.

PRISTINA, Kosovo | Bad though conditions are in most areas of life in Kosovo, talks on the province's final status will be launched before the end of the year. That message came clear and loud from U.S. Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns on a trip to Pristina last week. "There is a historic opportunity for the people of Kosovo now to define their own future," Burns told reporters.

Burns' visit came a week after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan received an assessment report on progress in achieving international standards from his special envoy Kai Eide and indicated he would soon appoint a senior diplomat to head the talks.

Kosovo's overwhelming ethnic Albanian majority wants independence from Serbia and Montenegro, to which it still formally belongs. The province has been a de-facto UN protectorate since the withdrawal of Serbian forces in 1999. Belgrade and most Kosovar Serbs oppose independence.

WEAK INSTITUTIONS

Eide harshly criticized both the ethnic Albanian majority and minority Serbs for the slow pace of progress on the standards set up by the international community. But he concluded that negotiations on the final status of the province should not be kept on hold.

"The determination of the future status of Kosovo remains a very sensitive political issue with very serious regional and international implications.
Nevertheless, a general assessment leads to the conclusion that the time has come to commence this process," Eide wrote.

A day after he received the report, Annan said, "I am studying the report and I will make a recommendation [on opening talks] to the Security Council very shortly. Maybe sooner than you think."

The report did not paint a bright picture of the situation in the UN-administered province: the institutions of government and the rule of law remain weak, unable to fight organized crime, corruption, and interethnic strife. The economy is in a deplorable state of high unemployment and poverty.

The situation of minorities - especially Serbs and Roma - is grim, according to Eide: "Regrettably, little has been achieved to create a foundation for a multiethnic society. Kosovo's leaders and the international community should take urgent steps in order to correct this grim picture."

Property rights were "neither respected nor ensured," the report said.

Eide also criticized Kosovo's Serbian politicians for refusing to work constructively within Kosovo's institutions. Serbian parties boycotted the last elections and continue to abstain from helping administer the province.
"The interests of the Kosovo Serbs would be better served if their representatives would return to parliament," he said.

Eide suggested that the international presence in Kosovo was still necessary in many fields, especially in policing and the judiciary.

The UN administrator in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen, thinks the report is balanced and accurate, an assessment shared by both the opposition and the government.

"The situation in Kosovo is not ideal. We did not expect that the report would idealize it," said a spokesperson for President Ibrahim Rugova.

The recommendation to begin status talks was hardly a surprise for the province's Serbs either. "It was known that [Eide] would propose the start of talks on final status, a process whose outcome is not yet known," the leader of the main Kosovo Serbian party, Oliver Ivanovic, said.

President Rugova has now appointed a negotiating team led by independent publisher and analyst Blerim Shala in order to prepare for the talks.

The team includes Rugova, Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi, Speaker of Parliament Nexhat Daci, Democratic Party of Kosovo leader Hashim Thaci, and the leader of the Ora party, Veton Surroi.

NO COMPROMISE

The negotiating team decided at their first meeting last week that there can be no compromise on the matter of independence.

"We will enter the talks with political demands, which emerge from the programs of political parties and institutional positions. The firm attitude of all of us is independence," a political advisor to the speaker of parliament, Ramush Tahiri, told TOL.

Ivanovic of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija wants to set up his own negotiating team to counterbalance the official, Albanian-only delegation.
Ivanovic also says that Serb representatives will only end their boycott of parliament once a more reasonable decentralization plan is on offer than the one proposed by UNMIK and the Kosovo government.

Local and international media have reported that former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari was likely to be appointed by Annan to head the talks.
After a round of shuttle diplomacy, he is expected to draft a document on the province's future status that will then be put to the province's Serbian and Albanian leaders for consideration, sources say.

U.S. diplomat Burns said the international team that will moderate the talks would include a U.S. envoy but that it was not up to his or any other country to decide on the Kosovo question: "My country does not favor any particular option. This has to be the responsibility of the people living here," he said.

One way out of the impasse could be what some have dubbed "conditional independence." The first to mention this option was a think tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), in a 2002 report. "Conditional independence under a form of international trusteeship offers the most appropriate solution. This would allow the international community to retain essential influence over local Albanian leaders. Having secured independence from Belgrade, but remaining on probation, the Kosovo Albanians would have a strong incentive to ensure that Kosovo would cease to be a factor of regional instability," the report argued.

The ICG recommended that the international community retain an essential role in Kosovo as guarantor of minority rights and external security.

Albanian Foreign Minister Besnik Mustafaj told the UN General Assembly in September that his government supported conditional independence, as this solution would allow the international community "to observe for a certain period of time the full development of Kosovo institutions and its society serving as a guarantee for the Serbs and other minorities," he said in New York.

ESCALATION?

But many Kosovars oppose anything short of full independence. "I don't think we [the negotiation team] will agree and sign such a thing" as conditional independence, Tahiri told TOL. "The Kosovar institutions will not accept anything but independence," Tahiri said. "People have been working for independence for six years. How would they justify this to the people?"

Albin Kurti, a former student leader and founder of a movement for self-determination, is opposed not just to conditional independence but to the very idea of negotiations. His voice is getting louder in the debate, and much of Kosovo has been plastered over with his slogan "No negotiations.
Self-determination".

Kurti told TOL: "The position of our movement is that there should be no negotiations at all since Serbia and Kosovo are not equal. Serbia is a country with a real government while Kosovo has a fictitious government." He says that conditional independence would render Kosovo would not be able to function as a full state, especially in the areas of defense and policing.

Kurti believes that a compromise would escalate the tensions in the region.
And indeed, the mood is getting tense already as the start of talks approaches.

Recent reports by the Pristina newspapers suggest that two armed groups with opposing aims are operating in Kosovo.

The daily Koha ditore carried an interview with Mikan Velinovic, who claimed to be the leader of the Serbian Liberation Antiterrorist Movement (SEAM). He said the SEAM had been set up last year and had 7,500 members.

Velinovic said SEAM represented all those, especially Serbs, who resisted Albanian and international terrorism.

When two Serbs were killed in Shterpce (Strpce) in August, SEAM forces laid siege to two Albanian villages to prevent any further attacks on Serbs, Velinovic claimed.

Velinovic refused to reveal any information about himself, and his account is difficult to verify.

The same newspaper published an article on the situation in the region of Dukagjini, in southwest Kosovo, which according to the paper is mostly controlled by the so-called Army for the Independence of Kosovo (AIK).

The AIK has threatened to wage war unless Kosovo declares independence.

The UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has ordered its personnel not to travel in that region at night. The curfew was imposed in connection with the appearance of an Albanian armed group patrolling southwest Kosovo, according to a bulletin distributed to UN staff in Kosovo.

While the extent of the popular support these groups enjoy is unclear, most Kosovar Albanians seem to stand firmly behind the goal of full independence their politicians - and some armed groups - pursue.

"I have no idea what would I do if there were any other solution but independence. What are they [the international community] thinking? If there's no independence, there will for sure be another war here," a student, Valon Kelmendi, told TOL.

Teacher Nafije Zharku shares that opinion. "I will wait and see what direction the negotiations take, and if it's not independence I will pack my things and leave. There's nothing else to do."

Fatmire Terdevci is TOL's correspondent in Pristina.

Police use pepper spray to disperse crowd painting anti-U.N. slogans in Kosovo

Released : Oct 19, 2005 9:28 AM
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-Police in Kosovo on Wednesday used pepper spray to disperse dozens of ethnic Albanian protesters who were spray-painting U.N. vehicles with slogans calling on the global body to leave the province.
Several dozen were arrested.

About 100 demonstrators wearing white T-shirts painted the Albanian word for "the end" on several U.N. cars parked near the U.N. mission headquarters in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

The demonstration was organized by a group called Self-determination, which has staged regular protests to demand that the United Nations leave Kosovo. The group is also pressing for the province's independence from Serbia and rejects the idea of negotiations over Kosovo's future status with Serbia.

Police commissioner Kai Vittrup said 37 protesters were arrested, including two journalists, Earlier a police spokesman had said 35 were arrested, including three reporters.

Vittrup also said police launched an internal inquiry to determine whether the officers had acted "in a proper manner" while conducting the arrests.

Among those arrested was former student leader Albin Kurti, who also leads the group organizing the protest.

Kurti spent over two years in prison in Serbia during the crackdown by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's forces on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO air war halted the Serb offensive.

There are around 3,000 U.N. police serving alongside 7,000 members of the fledgling Kosovo Police Service.

The ethnic Albanian majority wants independence, while Serbs living in Kosovo demand that it remain part of Serbia. Talks to determine Kosovo's future are expected to take place later this year.

Serbs "very frightened"

B92, Belgrade
October 20, 2005

While the international KFOR and UNMIK forces are just starting to confirm the existence of this so-called Kosovo Independence Army, Belgrade and the Kosovo Serb population are already discussing where this group might have come from.

Central Kosovo's Serbian National Council official, Rada Trajkovic, agreed with former Kosovo Coordination Centre President Nebojsa Covic's opinion that this group has ties to the outlawed Kosovo Liberation Army.

"They probably have an agreement with NATO officials with the common goal of promoting the intolerance of the Albanian community in Kosovo with the international community, and hopefully instigating a faster solution for the Kosovo status issue." Trajkovic said, adding that all groups such as the KLA, the Kosovo Protection Corps and this new Kosovo Independence Army, are more than likely made up of exactly the same people.

Trajkovic said that Serbs in Kosovo have not yet seen these armed Albanians, but they have heard stories, which, according to past experiences, is more than enough to make the Serbian population very frightened.

Former Kosovo Coordination Centre president Nebojsa Covic said that the appearance of this group of armed individuals in Kosovo is yet another form of pressure being put on the province's international forces and Serbian population.

Covic told B92 that these groups should be correlated with the recent events surrounding former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj.

"I imagine that Haradinaj and his team wanted to show that they are needed, to calm this group, which they probably hired themselves." Covic said.

"This is just added pressure being put on KFOR and UNMIK, who are frightened to begin with, but also pressure on the Serbian and non-Albanian population which means that, if there is no independence, then there will be conflict, a new war. I think that KFOR must work quickly and arrest these people if they know who they are." Covic said, adding that these threats need to be taken very seriously.

KFOR and UNMIK confirm existence of armed groups in Kosovo

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)
Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
Date: 19 Oct 2005

Pristina (dpa) - NATO-led peacekeeping troops and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo confirmed Wednesday the existence of armed groups in the west and southwest of the province.

"Masked men in black clothing'' had stopped and checked vehicles on the road between Pec and Djakovica in recent days prompting an increased alert for international police, said Kai Wittrup, head of UNMIK police.

The groups had set up "illegal checkpoints'', but so far no incidents had been reported, said KFOR spokesman Pio Sabetta. Their activities were criminal and authorities had begun an investigation. However, KFOR security measures had not been increased, he said.

Speaking to reporters, Wittrup said the situation in the province, which has been administered by the U.N. since 1999, was stable, but declined to discuss the identities of the groups saying only that they were criminal gangs.

UNMIK has registered 38 similar incidents in the past three years, he added.

UNMIK vehicles in the provincial capital Pristina were smeared Wednesday with the word "END'' in the Albanian language.

The perpetrators are believed to be close to extreme student leader Albin Kurti, who has demanded an end to U.N. administration and Kosovo's immediate independence, sources in Pristina said.

Yet another form of pressure

B92, Belgrade
October 19, 2005

Former Kosovo Coordination Centre president Nebojsa Covic said that the appearance of this group of armed individuals in Kosovo is yet another form of pressure being put on the province's international forces and Serbian population.

Covic told B92 that these groups should be correlated with the recent events surrounding former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj.

"I imagine that Haradinaj and his team wanted to show that they are needed, to calm this group, which they probably hired themselves." Covic said.

"This is just added pressure being put on KFOR and UNMIK, who are frightened to begin with, but also pressure on the Serbian and non-Albanian population.

Which means that, if there is no independence, then there will be conflict, a new war. I think that KFOR must work quickly and arrest these people if they know who they are." Covic said, adding that these threats need to be taken very seriously.

Men in black patrol Drenica area, Coordinating Center says

BELGRADE, Oct. 20, 2005 (BETA) - The Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija stated that a group of its officials saw armed men, wearing black outfits, who are not the police, controlling passengers and vehicles in the Drenica area on the Pristina-Pec route, in the evening of Oct. 18.

"The team of the Coordinating Center, visiting Kosovo officially, encountered a patrol of armed men wearing dark uniforms, on the Pristina-Pec route in the Drenica area," the Coordinating Center said in a statement issued in the evening of Oct. 19.

The statement quoted the officials as saying, "at the time when we came there, the men were controlling passengers from three vehicles. When seeing that, our driver accelerated and passed them without stopping, and we noticed a picture of war crime suspect Ramush Haradinaj on the back window of the armed group's automobile."

"One vehicle with Kosovo license plates started chasing the vehicle of the Coordinating Center, but the team managed to escape and spent the night in the nearest Serb village," it was said in the statement.

Hardly Escaped Alive

21 Oct (Blic, Belgrade) - 'We owe our lives to exceptional skill and presence of mind of our driver', one of three members of Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija team says for 'Blic'. On Tuesday evening members of Albanian para-military organization tried to stop their car near Drenica in Metohija.

We shall not mention the name of this individual for understandable reasons such as the individual's frequent visits to Kosovo. The story we were told is like a Hollywood thriller but without tragic end thanks to lucky concurrence of events.

Namely, the team of the Coordination Center was in central Metohija in previous days visiting Serbian schools and providing bare necessities to the local Serbs /medical drugs and food for diabetes patients.

On Tuesday evening they noticed at Kosovo Polje that a jeep was following them. Somewhat later the jeep passed them moving further in the distance. A kilometer before Drenica they saw a group of men in black uniforms stopping and checking a car almost identical to theirs.

We saw two jeeps, one of them was the jeep that was following us. It was immediately clear to us that they had organized an ambush for us but have stopped another car by mistake. Our driver started speeding up without delay. One of the two jeeps starts pursuing us and that went on over the next 70 kilometers. We managed to escape finally. During the pursuit there was no sign of UNMIK or KPS', this individual says.

According to our source the men in uniforms behaved quite relaxed. It was obvious that they were not hiding. It was also obvious that they were not road robbers but an organized group.

'At the rear window of the jeep that was following us we saw Ramush Haradinaj's photograph. During our earlier drives in that area we saw such photograph on other vehicles, too', our source says.

It seems that the situation in Metohija is out of control. The number of UNMIK Police patrols is decreasing and there is impression that UNMIK civil mission is disappearing. Albanian extremists take the advantage.

'Already bad situation in Serbian enclaves has further deteriorated', our source said.

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