October 25, 2005

KiM Info Newsletter 25-10-05

Security Council Approved Start Of Kosovo Status Talks

New York, 24 Oct. (Radio Srbija i Crna Gora) 

United Nations Security Council unanimously supported recommendation of the Secretary General Kofi Annan for start of talks about future status of Kosovo. Noting that the basis for this decision is found in Resolution 1244, brought in 1999.

Prime Minister Kostunica at the UN Security Council Meeting

The Security Council fully supports political process that will bring decision of future status of Kosovo, and once more confirms its determination for establishing of multiethnic and democratic society in the province, which has to strengthen stability of the region, notes announcement.

The highest body of world organization called leaders of Kosovo institutions to intensify their efforts on standards implementation, especially in the decentralization process, minorities protection and creating of conditions for return of refugees and preserving of cultural and religious heritage in the province.

New York, 24 Oct (Beta)

On Monday, during a session of the UN Security Council, Kai Eide, the Norwegian ambassador, recommended starting of the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, evaluating this process started with international community engagements and now it cannot be stopped or terminated.

Being the first speaker at the UN Security Council session, Eide expressed conviction that resolving of the Kosovo future status will be of benefit to all interested parties and people, which will be able to reach decisions on their future, and that this process will influence the development of stability of Kosovo and the region.

Eide warned that postponing of beginning of the talks would not contribute to implementing of the predefined standards for Kosovo, but that this is only possible with intensifying of the efforts and persistent insisting by the international community.
“Success of the status negotiations will depend on the future implementing of the standards. Process of standards can lead process of resolving the status in danger,” said Eide.

Since there are no previous instances and since what is being looked at is a part of sovereign state being run by UN, Eide evaluated that negotiations regarding Kosovo will be different then anything so far seen in the region of Ex Yugoslavia, and said process should gather around all interested parties, that it should not be expedited, and that once it begins it should be finished with in a reasonable time period.

He also warned that process of resolving the status cannot lead to long periods of confusion.

According to Kai Eide, entering of international community in the process of resolving the status does not mean entering in the last, but just means entering in the next phase of international presence in Kosovo.

Eide evaluates that international presence should continue to be strong in political and military sense, and especially in the areas such as police and justice system.

Eide shortly repeated his estimates from the his report on the Kosovo standard, saying that situation in the field is very contradictory, and that when it comes to interethnic relations situation is very bad.

Pointing out that interethnic situation is better then what it use to be a year ago, Eide said incidents of ethnic nature are still frequent, that freedom of movement is still obstructed, and atmosphere of not punishing the committed criminal acts dominated over the entire situation.

He underlined that process of return of the dispersed, especial the Serbs, is developing very slowly, and that still more people are leaving Kosovo then returning to it, as well as that situation in the camps sheltering dispersed is very bad.

According to Eide this problem demands looking in to politics used in returning the people. He called that dispersed be enabled return to the place where they want to live and not only to the places where they previously use to live.

Process of resolving of Kosovo status will also demand international action with the goal of protecting the Serbian sacred Orthodox sites, decentralization which will enable every community to influence its own life, and creation of situations for gaining of trust in Kosovo central institutions, said Eide.

He also evaluated that impressive efforts have been made in establishing institutional frames in Kosovo, institutions and public services are acting more efficient, but there is still lack of quality experts which in long run will demand support of the international community.

Eide stated that in Kosovo justice system presents a special institutional weakness because it has hard time griping with the organized crime and the ethnically motivated crimes.

After Eide, Sřren Jessen Petersen, the UNMIK chief, gave his views on the beginning of the Kosovo status talks. He emphasized that talks on the Kosovo status can only have positive effects. According to him Belgrade and Prishtina stances are contradictory, but if talks do not start that is how they will stay: “When it comes to peace, stability, and economic growth, process of determining Kosovo status can only have positive effects on the region, which also includes Serbia. Even tough the road ahead will surely be hard all of us must be clear that continuing of status quo is not a sustainable option”.

Council endorses start of status talks on Kosovo, top UN envoy calls this 'historic'

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE

24 October 2005 - The Security Council today endorsed the start of talks on the future status of ethnically-divided Kosovo, with the United Nations administrator of the Serbian province, which the world body has run for the past six years, calling it a very historic day.

"The Council offers its full support to this political process which would determine Kosovo's Future status and further reaffirms its commitment to the objective of a multi-ethnic and democratic Kosovo which must reinforce regional stability," the Council said in a presidential statement on the province where ethnic Albanians outnumber others, mainly Serbs, by about nine to one.

"The Security Council agrees. that notwithstanding the challenges they face in Kosovo and the wider region the time has come to move to the next phase of the political process," the statement, read by Council President for October, Ambassador Mihnea Ioan Motoc of Romania, added after a briefing by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Kosovo, Sřren Jessen-Petersen.

Just how difficult those challenges could be in the talks, which Mr. Annan has said could include the options of independence or autonomy, was underscored by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica who told the Council earlier today that any solution must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and Montenegro as an internationally recognized State.

The UN has run Kosovo since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove out Yugoslav troops amid grave human rights abuses in fighting between Albanians and Serbs in 1999.

Mr. Jessen-Petersen also stressed the challenges lying ahead. "We all know that the positions of Belgrade and Pristina on the issue of Kosovo's status are far apart," he said referring to the capitals of Serbia and Kosovo.

The Council welcomed Mr. Annan readiness to appoint a special envoy to lead the future status process. The Secretary-General told reporters he would likely appoint former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who has most recently served as his Special Envoy for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa.

The 15-member body stressed the need for "undiminished energy" in meeting the so-called Standards, a series of goals which include protecting minorities, establishing democracy, decentralization and creating the necessary conditions to allow a sustainable return of Serbs who fled. It urged the authorities in Belgrade to do their utmost to facilitate the future status process and to engage constructively.

Mr. Jessen-Petersen stressed that the process offers an opportunity for the Kosovo Albanian leadership "to show true commitment and take more decisive steps towards building the kind of multi-ethnic, democratic, and tolerant society that will undoubtedly bring them closer to realizing their dreams and goals when status is decided."

He cited six priority areas for action starting with the need to reassure the Serbs by improving the living conditions of those now in Kosovo and fostering the sustainable returns of those still displaced. "I don't expect major returns before status is clarified, but to reassure Kosovo Serbs of their future and to promote returns we need a constructive engagement of Belgrade and the direct involvement of the Kosovo Serbs," he said.

The other priorities are: a comprehensive reform of local government, an issue of crucial importance to minorities; establishing a transparent and non-politicized security apparatus; capacity building to ensure that Kosovo's institutions can take on their responsibilities; restructuring the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK); and maintaining a safe and secure environment.

"The security environment in Kosovo is at the moment stable, but isolated recent incidents remind us that, with the difficult status process about to begin, there is no place for complacency," he declared. "That process, and possibly provocations from all sides, will undoubtedly test our ability to maintain the secure environment that has, by and large, prevailed in Kosovo during the last 18 months."

Calling the latest development the end-game after six and a half years of a holding operation, Mr. Jessen-Petersen told reporters afterwards this was a very historic day. "The next months will be very difficult, we will be tested on the ground in Kosovo." But he added: "Let us just for one moment stop off and welcome the fact that the Security Council has just adopted a historic statement."

Also addressing Council members was Kai Eide, the Secretary-General's former Special Envoy for the Comprehensive Review of Kosovo, who introduced the report on his work.

Mr. Eide repeated his long-standing view that there would never be a good moment for addressing Kosovo's future status, and said both parties remain diametrically opposed with very little common ground. While prospects for reconciliation are modest, he supported the commencement of a process to determine future status, because it was important to keep the political process from stagnating.

24 Oct 2005 17:54:59 GMT

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 (Reuters) 

The U.N. Security Council on Monday embraced U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recommendation that international negotiations be launched to determine Kosovo's future.

"The council offers its full support to this political process, which would determine Kosovo's future status, and further reaffirms its commitment to the objective of a multiethnic and democratic Kosovo which must reinforce regional stability," said a statement adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council.

The council acted shortly after Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told it that Belgrade ruled out a process that could result in Kosovo's independence.

In a letter to the council, however, Kosovo's prime minister, Bajram Kosumi, wrote that Kosovo's government in Pristina and the vast majority of its people felt the province should be granted independence.

"The state of Kosovo should be a multiethnic, democratic and law-abiding place, which exists in peace and cooperation with its neighbors in the region and with the wider world," Kosumi wrote. "Within this broader vision, we are ready to elaborate more precise details of how Kosovo should be organized in both its institutions and its constitution."

Two U.N. envoys acknowledged that Serbs and Kosovars differed strongly over what the eventual fate of the southern Serb province should be.

But they argued that resolving the issue would benefit both sides and bring more stability to the region.

"We all know that the positions of Belgrade and Pristina on the issue of Kosovo's status are far apart, but it will remain so until and unless it is resolved by an internationally managed process, and the sooner that is done, the better for the citizens in Kosovo and in the region," said Soren Jessen-Petersen, the province's U.N. administrator.

U.N. special envoy Kai Eide said he believed there had been a change in the region and both Pristina and Belgrade now had a "shared expectation" that the process would begin.

"I am convinced that all will benefit from clarity with regard to what Kosovo will be," Eide said. "Such clarity will also remove an element of instability, which today hampers the political and economic development of Kosovo as well as of the region."

"The time has come to start the future status process," he said.

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