Kosovo Contact Group Ministerial statement

Source: United States Department of State
Date: 20 Sep 2006

Contact Group Ministers, together with the European Union High Representative, the European Union Presidency, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, the NATO Secretary General, UN officials including the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Kosovo, and UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari met on September 20 in New York to discuss the Kosovo future status process.

As this process enters a crucial stage, Ministers look forward to a durable solution to the last major issue related to the breakup of Yugoslavia. This would significantly enhance regional stability. Ministers reaffirmed their commitment that all possible efforts be made to achieve a negotiated settlement in the course of 2006.

Ministers recall that the Kosovo status process is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and that the Security Council and the Contact Group will continue to play key roles. Ministers express their deep appreciation to the UN Special Envoy for conducting eight months of intensive negotiations. They urge the parties to respect the UN process and work constructively under the guidance of the Special Envoy to bridge the gaps between the parties' positions. The Contact Group will monitor closely the extent of constructive engagement from both parties and will draw conclusions accordingly.

Regarding Kosovo's political status, Ministers recognize that distance remains between the positions of Belgrade and Pristina, as was made clear at the high-level meeting in Vienna on 24 July. Ministers support the Special Envoy's efforts to work with the parties in cooperation with the Contact Group to arrive at a realistic outcome that enhances regional stability, is acceptable to the people of Kosovo and preserves Kosovo's multi-ethnic character. Striving for a negotiated settlement should not obscure the fact that neither party can unilaterally block the status process from advancing.

Ministers encouraged the Special Envoy to prepare a comprehensive proposal for a status settlement and on this basis to engage the parties in moving the negotiating process forward.

Ministers urge Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self-Government and leaders of all of Kosovo's communities to accelerate efforts to implement UN-endorsed Standards, promote reconciliation and build trust among ethnic communities. The implementation of the Standards must continue during the status process and will be a factor in determining progress. They renew their call on Belgrade to cease its obstruction of Kosovo Serb participation in Kosovo's institutions.

Ministers welcome the ongoing efforts to prepare for the implementation of a settlement, including through a continued military presence to provide a safe and secure environment, and an international civilian presence to supervise implementation of and ensure compliance with the settlement.

Contact Group Foreign Ministers Stick to the Guiding Principles

The Foreign Ministers of the Contact Group member countries, who were submitted a report by the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari in New York yesterday, expressed their support to the latter and reiterated their expectation that a solution for the status of Kosovo be found by the end of the year, while no unilateral blockade of the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo must occur, RTS reported late last evening. The media earlier referred to the Russian Itar-Tass press agency reporting on the quote of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who stated upon meeting with Ahtisaari, that no status could be granted to Kosovo without the agreement of the other side, and only when the sides agree, the UNSC would approve their agreement. Lavrov had also stressed that "imposing any solution to any of the sides is counter-productive and without a perspective, whether it is Kosovo, Aphasia or South Ossetia," further insisting that, "in case this happens, a precedent will be created."

All Belgrade media mentioned the document on the position of Russia at the 61st UN General Assembly session posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official web site yesterday, according to which Moscow insists that the process of resolving the Kosovo problem should be performed strictly in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, in order to prevent the province from becoming a permanent source of instability in southern Europe. Adding that it is necessary for the UN Security Council to consider the implementation and realization of standards before the beginning of the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, Russia also considers any ultimatum and strict time limits for the negotiations as counterproductive. Pointing at the universality of the Kosovo problem, Moscow insists on a long-term stabilization of the Balkans on the grounds of a strict following of the internationally-legal platform, and considers that the talks on the uniqueness of the Kosovo issue are an attempt to bypass the internationally-legal norms, which would give the impression of the existence of double standards in the resolving of crisis in different regions in the world, as well as of the arbitrary implementation of this or that rule depending on each concrete case.

Talking to RTS before the meeting of the Contact Group took place, the Serbian President’s Advisor and coordinator of the Belgrade negotiating team Leon Kojen, who is part of the Serbian delegation currently visiting New York, commented that there were "very big differences" among the important members of the international community in viewing the future status of Kosovo. Insisting that "the international community is divided," he added that it meant that "a solution for Kosovo will not be imposed by the end of the year." Assessing that nothing would change in the stand of the Contact Group after the meeting with Ahtisaari, Kojen expressed the expectation that the guiding principles would be repeated, RTS reported.

Lavrov: Status Cannot Be Imposed

(21 SEPTEMBER RTS/RIA Novosti)

The Russian FM Sergey Lavrov has stated in New York that Kosovo cannot be granted any kind of status without the consent of both sides and that only when they reach an agreement will the UN SC approve it. "Imposing any solution on any of the sides is counterproductive and futile, whether it is Kosovo or Abkhazia and South Ossetia," underlined the Russian FM. "If this happens, it will set a precedent," said Lavrov in a meeting with the UN Secretary General’s SE for the Kosovo Status Process Martti Ahtisaari.

Lavrov also pointed out that the Contact Group is preparing "recommendations for the parties that have the last word on this. When the parties reach an agreement, the UN SC will be ready to approve it," the Russian news agency Ria-Novosti quotes Lavrov as saying.

As reported by the Russian wire, Lavrov also stated that "the Contact Group is not the forum in which the final decision will be taken," adding that "nothing will be decided by the UN General Assembly session, either."

Draskovic: Concessions made towards Russia

(RTS, September 21)

RTS reports that the Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic has told the press in New York, on the occasion of the Contact Group meeting, that Russia, "finding itself isolated from the other five member-countries of the Contact Group, as well as the EU and NATO, nevertheless, managed for one decision not to be implemented – for the Contact Group to decide that the solution to the future status of Kosovo will be found by the end of this year." "Instead, they remained with the old formulation that all efforts would be made towards finding this solution by the end of this year."

Another concession to Russia, according to him, was that they had given up on an accelerated pace and strategy for Martti Ahtisaari to very soon propose a solution to the future status to the Contact Group, and for this to then go on to the UNSC very quickly. "Instead, they have given support to the Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari and he has been encouraged to write another detailed report, a proposal of the future status solution, and then for this proposal to be the basis for the continuation of the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations," said Draskovic.

"I must, however, mention that the Contact Group, when it comes to how this proposal should look like, remained at its old positions, and this is a multi-ethnic Kosovo, a solution that will be accepted by the people of Kosovo, which doesn’t need any further interpretation, because it is well-known what kind of solution the majority of the population of Kosovo wants," said Draskovic.

Everything else is more or less the same, he assessed, saying that the "Albanians had been much less praised and the Serbs were not either praised or criticized, but only required again to enter the Kosovo institutions."

Reacting to the latest attack against Serb returnees in Klina, in which four people were injured by the explosion of a hand grenade thrown in their apartment, the Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica called on the UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari to undertake all necessary measures to restrain the Albanian separatists and their continuous terror on the Serb population in the province. Warning that "it is absolutely unacceptable for Serbs to be murdered and for Albanian separatists to openly threaten violence and blackmail the international community," he insisted that terrorism was definitely at issue there and that it was revealed before the entire world as the separatists’ only argument for an independent Kosovo. The head of the Coordination Center for Kosovo (CCK) Sanda Raskovic-Ivic commented that the terrorist attack against Serb returnees in Klina was yet another negative and adverse message to the Serbs, especially to returnees, telling them that they are not welcome in Kosovo. She added that the attacks against Serb returnees reflect the stand in Kosovo that the Serbs are an obstacle to the independence of the province. As for the leader of the leader of Serb List for Kosovo & Metohija (SLKM) Oliver Ivanovic, he assessed that the attack against the Serb returnees in Klina as being the last moment for UNMIK, KFOR and the temporary institutions’ representatives to realize how serious the situation in Kosovo is.

In his condemnation of the grenade attack on Serb returnees in Klina last Tuesday, the UNMIK deputy head Steven Schook indicated that "violence cannot be a means to achieve an end. It serves no purpose and it certainly is not in the interest of Kosovo." Upon meeting yesterday with the Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kole Berisha, whose recent statement that violence would erupt if the international community delays the recognition of Kosovo’s independence had sparked angry reactions in Belgrade and among the Kosovo Serbs, Shook insisted that the political leaders, the government and the Kosovo negotiating team should "be careful with the words and messages they send to the people of Kosovo." Berisha commented that his statement had been misinterpreted and, confirming that he had said that tensions could rise in Kosovo if the solving of the status was postponed, he added that he did not mean this would be directed against Serbia, Belgrade-based Beta news agency reported.

The new KFOR Commander Lieutenant General Roland Kather, who held his first meeting with the Acting Chief of Staff of the Army of Serbia, General Zdravko Ponos, in the southern Serbian town of Nis yesterday, indicated that KFOR would not tolerate violence in the province by any of the sides, and said: "Our duty is to maintain security in Kosovo and everyone can be sure that we will do this in a friendly fashion, but resolutely. To everyone who thinks there will be no peaceful development of the situation after the solving of Kosovo's status, I am saying that we will not tolerate violence from any side," Belgrade media reported.

Kosovo Premier Agim Ceku stated in an interview granted to AP that appeared yesterday that the Serbs would never dare "to invade Kosovo again," since "they have no courage" to do so. Commenting that "the war is over," he said he was "sure there's no willingness to choose this way of realizing their wishes," and added: "That is all mythology. There's a huge lack of reality in Serbia." Condemning the recent spate of bombings that took place in the province, Ceku blamed the Serbian nationalists for using "primitive propaganda" to incite ethnic tensions as the UN nears a decision on a possible statehood for Kosovo, and said he had "encouraged the Kosovo Serbs not to leave, not to be discouraged," since "independence is the time to stay, not leave. Independence is the time to come back," Belgrade electronic media reported.

The head of the Coordination Center for Kosovo (CCK) Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, who embarked on a four-day visit to the southern Serbian province yesterday, stated to Beta upon visiting the southern town of Prizren and the Sar district, that she ascertained that there was no return of the displaced and that the restoration of church buildings was going very slowly. Commenting that "sixteen Serbs have returned to Prizren, and about 20 of them have never left it," which "is only about 30 people, not a couple of thousand, as UNMIK officials claim," she said they told her that they were exposed to a terrible isolation and all forms of harassment, both psychological and physical, which, in her words, confirm that the "project of a multiethnic Kosovo undertaken by the international community has completely failed and practically does not exist."

Neither side ready for compromise

(Betaweek, September 21, 2006)

The Serbian and Albanian sides have evidently exhausted all possibilities for an agreement on a solution to the Kosovo crisis. This means that it is now up to international mediators to come up with a proposal for Kosovo's final status. U.N. special envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari has already been charged by the Contact Group to devise a proposal for Kosovo's final status. The proposal will not be presented at the upcoming U.N. Security Council session this week. It will be unveiled when the Contact Group deems the moment right. An agreement between the two sides would have been the preferable solution, and a last effort will be made to compel Belgrade and Pristina to find a common language, but the chances of a compromise happening are very slim. As they await Ahtisaari's proposal, the Serbian and Albanian sides are continuing to entrench themselves in their earlier positions. During last week's negotiations on the number of new majority Serb municipalities in Kosovo, held in Vienna, major differences in opinion between Belgrade and Pristina crystallized. Ahtisaari and his assistant Albert Rohan have invited both sides to show more political will, but they did not seem very convinced in the likelihood of this happening.
Ruling circles in Belgrade believe that an earlier decision to mention Kosovo in Serbia's new constitution will significantly improve Belgrade's negotiating position. This idea, however, is basically political propaganda, as the current constitution already defines Kosovo as a part of Serbia. The only opposition to this policy in Serbia is from small liberal parties and a few independent intellectuals. Their influence, however, is minor, and, therefore, Belgrade cannot be expected to change its stance on Kosovo in the coming months. This is why it is entirely possible that the international community's decision on Kosovo, which will likely be some kind of independence, will be opposite to Belgrade's political will, now solidified in the new constitution. Belgrade has also not given up on the idea of delaying a decision on Kosovo's final status for next year, after the next parliamentary election in Serbia. This option is receiving growing support in Belgrade, where many believe that the West could help Belgrade secure long-term political stability, considering the looming threat of radicalism, in the form of the Serbian Radical Party, before making a serious attempt to solve the Kosovo problem. This scenario sees Serbia's first receiving a new constitution, followed by elections that would produce a stable democratic majority, before any solution to the sensitive matter of Kosovo's status. Despite indications that Russia and some European states could support this option and thereby help Serbia maintain political stability, there is no proof this will actually happen. The Contact Group is still sticking to its earlier demand that negotiations be wrapped up before the end of the year. Washington and London are especially keen on this.
 
Serbian President Boris Tadic is scheduled to address the U.N. Security Council. Envoy Martti Ahtisaari will read a report on the progress of negotiations on Kosovo at the same session and he will definitely inform the Council of Serbia's relentless opposition to independence for Kosovo. Serbia's major political parties have reached a political agreement to define the province as a part of Serbia in the new constitution. The Albanian side is firmly determined to win independence, and Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu will be telling the Security Council this when he delivers his address. Meanwhile, the Albanian side has been giving off some very nervous reactions. Twice earlier this week, Kosovo Speaker Kolë Berisha said that any protraction of a decision on independence could lead the population to rebel. Berisha's statement stirred up a strong response from the Serbian side. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that Berisha's statement was a threat not only to the negotiations, but to peace in the region. Other ruling officials reacted to the statement, demanding that the international community take a stance on Berisha's statement. In addition, the Serbian side enumerated several other offensive statements, including Ahtisaari's statement that Serbia would have to pay for the mistakes committed during the rule of Milosevic's regime. What Serbia's ruling parties are doing in fact is trying to demonstrate their uncompromising devotion to defending national interests to the voters.