February 17, 2007

KiM Info Newsletter 17-02-07

Russian FM says Kosovo independence would have "the most negative consequences"

"There exists a fairly insistent idea among our Western partners to swiftly propose a resolution that would approve Ahtisaari's plan," RIA-Novosti quoted Lavrov as saying. He said Russia would only consider such a resolution if the Serbian and Kosovo leaderships agreed on the plan or an amended version.

Associated Press: Friday, February 16, 2007 11:59 AM

MOSCOW-Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that granting independence for Kosovo would have "the most negative consequences" for the Balkans and Europe, Russian media reported, some of the strongest language yet on an issue that has deepened Moscow's disagreements with the West.

The remarks were Russia's latest criticism of a U.N. plan that envisages supervised statehood for the troubled Balkan province. Lavrov and other officials in Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia, have expressed concern that the plan would give Kosovo independence, and said a deal must be negotiated and acceptable to both sides.

Lavrov reiterated a warning issued in September that Russia could use its veto power in the U.N. Security Council if it disagreed with a proposal by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, according to remarks reported by the RIA-Novosti news agency. The proposal must be approved by the U.N. Security Council to take effect.

"As regards Kosovo we are convinced that providing that granting this territory independence will have the most negative consequences for the region and for Europe as a whole," the agency quoted Lavrov as saying. "Our Western partners are convinced of the opposite."

Lavrov apparently did not say what potential consequences he had in mind.

Putin has warned the West that granting Kosovo independence would serve as precedent for other nations with similar cases, including pro-Russian breakaway provinces in the ex-Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova whose sovereignty claims are dismissed by the United States and Europe.

Kosovo has been a U.N. protectorate since 1999, when NATO airstrikes that were adamantly criticized by Moscow stopped Serbia's crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanian rebels. Belgrade insists the province must remain a part of Serbia, whereas its majority ethnic Albanians seek independence.

Serbia's new parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected Ahtisaari's plan, which envisages internationally supervised self-rule for Kosovo, including a flag, anthem, army, constitution and the right to join international organizations.

Rice says U.S. eager to support Kosovo and avoid "blow up"

Associated Press: Friday, February 16, 2007 12:19 PM

WASHINGTON-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that the United States is eager to support Kosovo as the contested Serbian province's future is determined.

But she said negotiators face a difficult task as they work to avoid a "blow up."

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority is demanding full independence, while Serbia insists that Kosovo remain part of its territory. On Friday, Albanian leaders said they saw no chance of reaching an agreement with Serbia on a U.N. proposal that could grant the province internationally supervised statehood.

The two sides are to meet next week for a final round of negotiations on the plan.

"Everybody understands that it's going to be a rocky road as Kosovo obtains a different status," Rice said at a congressional hearing.

Rice said the United States wants to support democracy in both Kosovo and in Serbia. "Because we don't need, in this last piece of the unification of Europe around democratic principles, to have Kosovo blow up."

The U.N. plan envisages internationally supervised self-rule and the trappings of statehood, such as a flag, anthem, army and constitution, while giving Kosovo's minority Serbs more control over their day-to-day affairs.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since mid-1999, when NATO airstrikes halted a Serbian crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians and forced Belgrade to relinquish control.

Breaking Serbia through legal violence not acceptable

Serbian Government, Belgrade, Feb 16, 2007 - Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica received today a delegation of Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija, led by president of the Serbian National Council Milan Ivanovic.

Participants in the meeting agreed that it is very important that Serbian parliament, as the supreme organ of authority in the country, adopted the new Resolution before continuation of talks in Vienna, thus giving Serbia's clear answer to the proposal made by Martti Ahtisaari.

It was evaluated as very important that Serbian parliament in its Resolution righteously rejected all provisions from the proposal that violate sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia as an internationally recognised state.

The Serbian Prime Minister said that in line with the Serbian Constitution and all principles of international law that are currently in force, Kosovo-Metohija is an inalienable and integral part of Serbia's territory and Serbia will never accept or recognise any attempt to break it into peaces using arguments of force and legal violence.

He warned that all consequences of violence against the Serbian state and the responsibility for that would be taken by those who would approve snatching away a part of the territory of a democratic European state.

The Prime Minister said that at negotiations in Vienna the Serbian negotiating team will present the best and unbeatable arguments as it has done so far, because it is absolutely unacceptable to tear the Serbian state using legal violence.

Tadić advisor: We will propose amendments

17 February 2007 | 13:30 -> 16:18 | Source: B92, FoNet
BELGRADE -- Belgrade’s team will submit a number of amendments to Ahtisaari’s proposal, an advisor to president Tadić says.

Vuk Jeremić also said Serbia wished to approach the Vienna talks "constructively".

“Naturally, there will be no compromises when it comes to preserving our national interests in Kosovo”, Jeremić told Večernje Novosti.

He added that Martti Ahtisaari’s statement made in Brussels Friday that he did not expect the Vienna negotiations to produce any compromise, would not deter Belgrade from “approaching them constructively.”

Jeremić added that in case no compromise was reached, “all will be in the hands of the UN Security Council”.

“Content and process”

Belgrade’s Kosovo team advisor Swiss legal expert Thomas Fleiner told the state television Saturday the Kosovo status talks content must belong to the negotiating parties, while the process should be controlled by the international mediator.

He warned that true compromise could not have been reaches, since “true negotiations never took place”.

“During the talks in Vienna last July, both president Tadić and prime minister Koštunica said they were ready to compromise. Ahtisaari’s answer was that he wanted to hear the word ‘solution’, not ‘compromise’. No solution could be reached based on that, since any solution must come as a result of what the negotiating parties, rather than the mediator, come up with”, Fleiner concluded.

UN Security Council should reject Ahtisaari's plan

Serbian Government, Belgrade, Feb 17, 2007 - Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Zoran Loncar voiced hope today that the UN Security Council will reject the proposal of UN Special Envoy for the status of Kosovo-Metohija Martti Ahtisaari as illegitimate, because it is inconceivable that the Security Council breaches the basic principles of the UN Charter.

Loncar told the Tanjug news agency that not only Russia and China, but many other countries as well are againts the attempts to take away from a sovereign state and UN member 15% of its territory.

He said that it is obvious that Ahtisaari was biased from the very beginning of the negotiations because he advocated interests of the ethnic Albanian national minority.

In view of that, his proposal is an expression of an unprincipled position which is illegitimate and contrary to standards on which the international order is based, Loncar concluded.

De Hoop Scheffer: World is watching Kosovo

SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN TIMES (USA)
16/02/2007

Violence will not be tolerated in Kosovo, while those advocating partition should know this is not an option, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Pristina on Thursday.

By Blerta Foniqi-Kabashi and Bekim Greicevci in Pristina - 16/02/07

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (centre) and KFOR commander Roland Kather head to a press conference after their meeting with the Kosovo negotiation group on Thursday (February 15th). [Getty Images]

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on a visit to Kosovo, warned that KFOR would not tolerate any form of violence in the province. "If there are people in Kosovo who might think that inciting violence could be the answer, they are wrong and KFOR will prove they're wrong," he said at a press conference Thursday (February 15th) following talks with Kosovo leaders, UNMIK head Joachim Ruecker and the commander of KFOR, Lieutenant General Roland Kather.

De Hoop Scheffer arrived in the province five days after weekend clashes between Albanian pro-independence demonstrators and police. Two people died and about 80 were injured after protestors attempted to storm government buildings, leading police to respond with tear gas and rubber bullets.

"Unfortunately, last Saturday we saw an example of how things should not go," the NATO chief said. "There should be no need for more fatalities and more victims in Kosovo."

On behalf of the Alliance, he expressed full support for UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's status plan, while urging local leaders and all ethnic groups to show maturity in shaping Kosovo's future.

"As we speak, the world is watching very carefully what kinds of messages come from Kosovo," he said. "You will be heard, you will be seen, you will be watched by the international community."

De Hoop Scheffer then travelled to the northern part of Kosovo to meet with the political leaders of Serb communities, who said they do not support Ahtisaari's plan.

"We support the plan of Belgrade and the resolution adopted by the parliament of Serbia, which rejects Ahtisaari's package," said Slavisa Ristic, the mayor of Zubin Potok. Should Kosovo become an independent state, Ristic said, local Serbs will not allow its government to extend its authority to the territories controlled by them.

For his part, de Hoop Scheffer reiterated a Contact Group principle ruling out any breach in Kosovo's territorial integrity. "The people who would like to work for partition should realise that this is not the solution and this can never be the solution," he said.

He said he would soon go to Belgrade "to work on Ahtisaari's basis, because there is really no alternative".

He promised no downsizing of KFOR troops, saying Kosovo is in an important and sensitive period that needs KFOR at full strength. At present, NATO has approximately 16,000 troops in Kosovo.

Under Ahtisaari's plan, NATO would continue its presence in Kosovo after the status settlement. "The Western Balkans are an important part of Europe," de Hoop Scheffer said, stressing the need to "bring this part of the world closer to the Euro Atlantic institutions".

Final Round Of Kosovo Talks Will Not Be "eternal": Ahtissari

DPA, 05:07 PM, February 16th 2007

Next week's round of discussions between Serbian and Kosovar leaders on Kosovo's future status will not be extended indefinitely, UN envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari warned Friday.

Ahtisaari, who met NATO envoys in Brussels, said he was prepared to listen to both sides' views on his near-independence plan for Kosovo in talks set to open in Vienna on February 21.

"If the parties can come up with ideas that both can support, I am prepared to entertain them," Ahtisaari told reporters at a joint news briefing with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

But the UN envoy warned Belgrade and Pristina not to table "totally opposing ideas" and said the new and final round of talks - expected to last until March 10 - "cannot be an eternal process."

"I will have to draw the conclusions at some stage and say this is it," said Ahtisaari.

Recognizing the difficulty in getting Serbian and Kosovar leaders to agree on the text, Ahtisaari said he was "realistic."

"I have my doubts and I do not believe in miracles," said Ahtisaari.

Belgrade wants to retain sovereignty over Kosovo, while the Albanians, who make up the vast majority of the territory's population, are demanding independence from Serbia.

Ahtisaari's plan, representing an effective roadmap leading Kosovo to independence, has been welcomed by Albanian politicians but rejected by Serbia. It is strongly supported by the United States, the European Union and NATO.

Ahtisaari insisted that the talks in Vienna, to be held in three rounds, would be the last before the plan for Kososo is presented to the United Nations Security Council.

The first round of discussions is set to be held from February 21 to 23, the second from February 27 to March 2 and the last one on March 10.

The UN envoy said he wanted to go "thoroughly" study the plan with the two sides and provide clarifications.

NATO chief Scheffer said the 26-nation alliance was strongly behind Ahtisaari's proposals and also backed his timetable for future action.

Scheffer insisted that the 16,000 strong NATO-led KFOR force in Kosovo would not tolerate any form of violence in the territory.

"There can never be a solution in Kosovo on the basis of violence," said Scheffer, adding: "There can never be a partition scenario.

“Serbia puts too much faith in Russia”

17 February 2007 | 12:08 | Source: B92, Blic

Moscow -- A Russian expert says Serbia shows excessive faith in Moscow’s willingness to use its veto powers at the UN.

“It would be smart for Serbia to instead focus on Kosovo’s division, since there is still time and space for that”, Moscow’s Strategic Studies Institute director Andrei Piontkovski said.

Blic daily reported Piontkovski as saying that although Russia showed support for Serbia in the process determining Kosovo’s future status, it is at the same time considering its own interests, since an independent Kosovo would enable for the independence of Abkhazia, North Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, “something Russia wishes to see happen”.

“It will be impossible to tell what Moscow might do until the very last moment, but I cannot rule out the possibility it will, after all, decide to protect its own interests”, Piontkovski told Blic.

Meanwhile, Moscow daily Kommersant said yesterday Belgrade’s decision to reject Ahtisaari’s plan for Kosovo’s future rendered the upcoming Vienna talks “meaningless”, showing that Serbia counted on a Russian veto at the UN Security Council “from the beginning”.

“By avoiding to fight to change the Kosovo plan, Serbia is in effect relaying the problem to Russia”, the Moscow daily said.

In Defence of Kosovo's Serbs

There must be no return to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans

TIMES (UK)
February 17, 2007

It is eight years since Nato halted Slobodan Milosevic's persecution of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, in an onslaught that emptied and torched villages, killed about 100,000 and forced almost a million to flee.

Returning Albanians turned on their persecutors, killing 1,000 Kosovan Serbs; 200,000 left the province, never to return. Kosovo became a UN protectorate, administered and policed by foreigners, including a 17,000strong Nato contingent whose thankless job has been to hold the ring between two embittered communities, 90 per cent of them Albanian and 10 per cent Serb.

Morally, the Albanians have a strong case for full independence - provided that the Serbs among them are properly protected from physical danger and economic discrimination. Legally, Kosovo is a province of Serbia, which argues that to give the territory independence would be an attack on Serbia's territorial integrity, and thus a violation of the UN Charter.

Politically, the vital thing is to prevent Kosovo, where ancestral memories of conflict reach deep into medieval history, from becoming, once again, the tinder-box of the Balkans. So the UN and Nato put Kosovo's future on hold until a compromise could be reached that all parties were prepared to accept.

The idea was reasonable; but because compromise is not a word in the Albanian and Serbian vocabularies, it was not feasible. Eight years on the remaining Serbs, heavily dependent on subsidies from Belgrade, live in segregated enclaves, protected by Nato troops, from which most do not dare to emerge. Continued assaults on their ancient churches intensify their fears for the future. The Albanians retort that the Serbs cut themselves off by choice, dealing only with Belgrade, and that they should blame Mr Milosevic, not their Albanian compatriots, for their present plight. The risk of conflict is almost as high as it was when Kosovo was taken under Nato's wing.

Doing nothing is no longer an option. Kosovo could erupt if Albanian demands continue to be shunted into the "too difficult" file; meanwhile, much of Western Europe quietly hopes the remaining Serbs will ethnically cleanse themselves.

On behalf of the UN, Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish President and a veteran of Balkan negotiations, has come up with a plan for a form of Kosovan independence, supervised by the EU. The word does not appear, but Kosovo would have the trappings of statehood, including its own army and the right to join international organisations. The plan goes too far for the Serbians and not far enough for the Kosovans. They meet next week in Vienna for supposedly "final negotiations". No one expects progress. The buck then passes to the Security Council, where Russia could use its veto.

This plan offers Serb communities considerable autonomy. They would be unwise to refuse. But they need better guarantees, equal citizenship and opportunities. An incentive to good faith would be an offer, made now, of EU membership for both Serbia and Kosovo, if they jointly ensure the welfare of all Kosovans. So bold a step would be out of character for the EU. But it could hold the key to a durable Balkan peace.

Ethnic Albanians see no chance of breakthrough in talks with Serbia over Kosovo's future

Associated Press: Friday, February 16, 2007 9:02 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-Ethnic Albanian leaders said Friday they saw no chance of reaching an agreement with Serbia on a U.N. proposal that could grant the province internationally supervised statehood.

The two sides are to meet for a final round of negotiations on the plan next week in Vienna, Austria.

"We don't expect to reach any agreement on the raised issues with Belgrade's team," said Skender Hyseni, the spokesman for ethnic Albanian negotiators.

"We decided to go to Vienna to ... demonstrate our commitment to this process that aims and will create Kosovo's state."

The proposal, drawn up by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, does not explicitly mention independence, but it envisages internationally supervised self-rule and the trappings of statehood, such as a flag, anthem, army and constitution, while giving Kosovo's minority Serbs more control over their day-to-day affairs. Ahtisaari plans to put the proposal before the U.N. Security Council by the end of next month.

Although ethnic Albanian leaders have accepted the plan, some parts of Kosovo's majority population have complained it doesn't go far enough: most ethnic Albanians insist on full independence for the province. Serbia's parliament rejected the plan outright, with Belgrade, which wants Kosovo to remain part of Serbia, saying it gives too much to the ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders met on Friday to discuss possible objections they might raise to the U.N. plan and weekend clashes between police and about 3,000 ethnic Albanians protesting the proposal that left two dead.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Kosovo Serb minority met in Belgrade with Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, to stress their objection to the plan, saying it could allow Kosovo eventually to become a separate country.

"Serbia is an internationally recognized state ... and cannot agree to formation of a new country at the expense of its territory," Kostunica said in a statement after meeting with Kosovo Serb leader Milan Ivanovic.

But the Serb side will participate in the next round of talks in Vienna, where its negotiators will "present arguments against dismembering of Serbia," the statement said.

Hyseni said that ethnic Albanian representatives heading to Vienna next week for the talks will seek clarification of parts of the plan relating to minority representation or links between municipalities in Kosovo.

The province has been a U.N. protectorate since 1999, when NATO bombing halted former President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province. Nearly 10,000 ethnic Albanians were killed in the onslaught, and almost 1 million were forced to flee their homes. About 1,000 Serbs were killed in revenge attacks by Kosovo Albanians.

On Thursday, Ahtisaari said chances were slim that Serbia's nationalist leaders and their ethnic Albanian rivals will ever agree on the U.N. proposal.

Diplomats say it is increasingly likely that the Security Council, which will have the final say, may have to impose a solution. But that could open a rift between the United States, which strongly backs Kosovo's quest for independence, and Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia which wields veto power.

Meanwhile, representatives of ethnic groups in Kosovo and other experts were to meet in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya on Saturday and Sunday to discuss human and minority rights and to developments in Kosovo, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

SRSG stresses broad international support for status proposal

UNMIK/PR/1642
Friday, 16 February 2007

PRISTINA – Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo (SRSG) Joachim Rücker today stressed the broad support of the international community for Mr. Ahtisaari’s proposal and said that it comes “at an ideal moment in history”. The SRSG was addressing a townhall meeting in Klinë/Klina municipality together with Kosovo Assembly President Kolë Berisha, Acting Minister for Communities and Returns Branislav Grbić and Klinë/Klina Municipal Assembly President Prenkë Gjetaj.

“Even if some things don’t feel ideal to you, I would appeal to you to have a positive attitude towards the status package,” Mr. Rücker said. “Now we have the green light also from the European Union for Mr. Martti Ahtisaari to go ahead to the next step,” he added.

The SRSG called on those wishing to express their opinion through demonstrations to do so through peaceful means. “At this point in time, we should not make any mistakes,” he said. “It would be very detrimental if developments in Kosovo would come in the way of the status process. We should strongly discourage the sort of violence we have seen last Saturday.”

Mr. Rücker addressed the issue of unemployment and economic growth in Kosovo. He said: “I strongly reject it when people in international economic fora say that Kosovo is an economic black hole. The economic growth in Kosovo last year was close to five per cent and this came exclusively from the private sector.” He recognised that although privatisation makes a contribution to employment, it will not achieve a breakthrough “because the yearly entry of 25,000 people to the labour market is just too high to be absorbed by economic growth”.

In a separate meeting with Kosovo Serb returnees, the SRSG said that the status package was there “to make sure from an institutional side that you have a good future in Kosovo and that you can participate in its political and economic life”. He said, “Kosovo is a home for all its communities and if we cannot show that already now even before status, then this is not the Kosovo we are all working for.” He encouraged the Kosovo Serbs, especially the young, to apply for jobs instead of waiting for offers, reminding them that public enterprises and municipalities have unfilled quotas for minority candidates.

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