Tadić: Independence is unacceptable

26 March 2007 | 19:44 | Source: B92 
BERLIN, BELGRADE -- President Boris Tadić said Serbia strongly disagreed with the State Department’s decision to back Ahtisaari’s Kosovo plan.

“Any form of independence for Kosovo-Metohija is unacceptable for Serbia, and we will strive to express the need to reach a compromise solution through continued negotiations in our contacts with the UN Security Council member states,” Tadić told U.S. Under secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns in a telephone conversation.

Tadić said he saw “room for further dialogue”, as well as that the UN special Kosovo envoy Martti Ahtisaari had “not yet exhausted all potential for negotiations”, the president’s press office said in a statement issued today.

“Serbia is ready to take a constructive part in further talks,” Tadić said, stressing it was “vitally important to do all in order to ensure peace and stability in Kosovo.”

Tadić said that was “for the most part NATO’s responsibility”, adding that Serbia was ready to help maintain peace and stability in the province.

Rašković-Ivić: U.S. backs ethnic cleansing

Meanwhile, Kosovo Coordinating Center chairwoman Sanda Rašković-Ivić said she believed the proposal for Kosovo’s supervised independence, “announced by U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns”, would not be adopted and that negotiations would resume, the government reported on its web site.

Rašković-Ivić said Burns’ statement expressing the United States’ full support for Ahtisaari’s Kosovo status plan was tantamount to the U.S. backing of “ethnic cleansing and the seizure of territory of a sovereign, internationally recognized state, member and founder of the UN.”

She pointed out that “the U.S. backs the creation of another Albanian state in the Balkans on someone else’s territory, which would be built on the most brutal ethnic cleansing that started at the end of the 20th century and continues in the 21st century.”

Rašković-Ivić repeated that the resumption of talks was “the only way to find a compromise that would satisfy both sides.”

Minister: UN will reject Ahtisaari plan

Minister of public administration and local self-government Zoran Lončar said today that he was “convinced the UN Security Council will reject the proposal of the UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari since it is directly opposed to the UN Charter,” the government web site said.

Tanjug reported Lončar as saying the proposal was in fact “a plan which meets the interests of separatists to let the ethnic Albanian minority create another Albanian state on Serbia’s territory.”

“When the UN Security Council rejects the proposal, there will be room for a new negotiating process with a new international mediator,” Lončar said.

Reactions to unveiling of Kosovo plan

27 March 2007 | 11:51 -> 13:24 | Source: B92, Beta, AP 
PRIŠTINA -- Kosovo Serbs should accept U.N. proposal to grant the province independence from Serbia, Kosovo prime minister says.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku said he was "intent on getting Kosovo's remaining 100,000 Serbs to accept the U.N. plan and end a boycott of public institutions."

“Kosovo's minority Serbs, who faced revenge attacks after the war and now live largely separate lives in isolated enclaves, should accept a U.N. proposal to grant the province eventual independence from Serbia,” Ceku explained.

He said the U.N. proposal offers Kosovo Serbs "the full guarantees" that their rights will be protected.

"They have all the necessary means to have a dignified and prosperous life in Kosovo together with all of us," Ceku said.

The Kosovo prime minister said Monday, upon the official unveiling of Ahtisaari’s plan that “supervised independence might not be an ideal solution, but it surely was the only realistic and viable option for Kosovo.”

Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said on the same occasion Monday that the day the UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari recommended independence for Kosovo was of historical importance for the province.

"The fate of Kosovo is now in the hands of the UN Security Council," Sejdiu said.

He added he was pleased that "the comprehensive proposal to finally settle the status of Kosovo and grant independence to the province received the full support of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon."

“The independence of Kosovo, initially supervised by the international community, will benefit all of Kosovo’s citizens, including the Albanian majority and all minority communities that reside in Kosovo,” Sejdiu said.

He concluded that “an independent Kosovo would add to stability and peace in the region, as it is the last unresolved issue in South East Europe.”

Ahtisaari’s proposal directly opposes UN Charter

Belgrade, March 26, 2007, Belgrade Government – Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Zoran Loncar said today that he is convinced the UN Security Council will reject the proposal of the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo-Metohija Martti Ahtisaari since it is directly opposed to the UN Charter.

In a statement to the Tanjug news agency, Loncar said that the proposal is in fact a plan which meets the interests of separatists which are to let the ethnic Albanian minority create another Albanian state on Serbia’s territory.

According to Loncar, when the UN Security Council rejects the proposal, there will be room for a new negotiating process with a new international mediator.

He stressed that the solution to the Kosovo issue must be in line with international law and the Serbian Constitution, adding his belief that new talks are the only right way leading to compromise and a lasting solution.

President of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic expressed belief that the proposal of Kosovo’s supervised independence, announced by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns will not be adopted and that negotiations will resume.

Raskovic-Ivic commented Burns’ statement that the United States fully support Ahtisaari’s proposal on supervised independence by saying that in this way the United States support ethnic cleansing and the seizure of the territory of a sovereign, internationally recognised state, member and founder of the UN.

She pointed out that the United States backs the creation of another Albanian state in the Balkans on someone else’s territory, which would be built on the most brutal ethnic cleansing that started at the end of the 20th century and continues in the 21st century.

Raskovic-Ivic repeated that resuming the talks is the only way to find a compromise that would satisfy both sides.

Russia: Independence would damage stability

27 March 2007 | 12:03 | Source: B92, Interfax 
Moscow -- The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Tuesday commenting on Ahtisaari’s finalized plan.

“The establishment of an independent state in Kosovo could have a negative impact on stability in Europe,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, Interfax reported.

"The establishment of an independent state in Kosovo is fraught with serious complications for stability in Europe," the Foreign Ministry mantained.

"It is also doubtful whether Kosovo's independence, obtained without the consent of all countries, would facilitate the achievement of  the fundamental objectives that the status settlement requires, including the formation of a multiethnic society and the fulfillment of other standards," the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed. 

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA REPORTS

Russia to launch probe if Ahtisaari Kosovo plan accepted

RUSSIAN INFORMATION AGENCY NOVOSTI
27/03/2007

MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will demand inquiries into the implementation of all previous UN resolutions on Kosovo if the UN Security Council approves a UN special envoy's plan on the status of Kosovo, the Russian foreign minister said Tuesday.

Marti Ahtisaari, a special UN envoy for talks on Kosovo, has proposed that the province be granted internationally supervised sovereignty, but Serbian authorities have strongly opposed the plan as threatening Serbia's national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"We will be checking how existing UN Security Council resolutions on Kosovo, particularly Resolution 1244, are being implemented," Sergei Lavrov said.

"We want to objectively, without imposing any one-sided evaluations, determine who was implementing UN Security Council resolutions and how, and who was not."

On Monday Ahtisaari returned his proposals on the future status of the breakaway Serbian province to the UN Security Council following fruitless top-level talks in Vienna between Pristina, Belgrade and the European Union, which said later in a statement that it fully backed Ahtisaari's plan.

As a veto-wielding member in the 15-nation UN Security Council and a traditional ally of Serbia, Russia has insisted that a decision on Kosovo should satisfy both Kosovar and Serbian authorities, and that it must be reached through negotiations.

Serbia's predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo province, which has a population of two million, has been a UN protectorate since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a war between Serb forces and Albanian separatists in 1999.

The Serbian parliament unanimously approved a resolution February 14 rejecting some provisions of the plan.

Unlike Russia, NATO has made it clear that it favors independence for Kosovo, but a final decision will be up to the UN Security Council.

In its foreign policy review, published Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the lack of an alternative to the proposed independence for Kosovo could strain the international community's efforts to resolve the issue as a whole.

"The formation of an independent state of Kosovo could result in serious complications for stability in Europe," the ministry said. "It is doubtful that an independent Kosovo that does not enjoy the consent of all the countries involved will resolve the fundamental tasks at hand, such as the formation of a multi-ethnical society and the implementation of other standards for Kosovo."

Russia has been opposed to the internationally backed plan to grant sovereignty to Kosovo, also arguing that it would set a precedent for the breakaway regions in the former Soviet Union it is believed to support - Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Moldova's Transdnestr.

Proposals for Kosovo's Final Status

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Press Statement
Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman

Washington, DC, March 26, 2007

After over a year of negotiations, UN Special Envoy and former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari has delivered to the UN Secretary General his proposals for Kosovo's future status. We are grateful to President Ahtisaari for his patient, skillful and balanced work leading the Kosovo status process.

The United States welcomes and supports his recommendations.

The UN Special Envoy's proposals will give the people of Kosovo clarity about their future for the first time in many years. They contain far-reaching guarantees to protect the rights and security of Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanian communities. President Ahtisaari has also proposed that Kosovo become independent, subject to a period of international supervision.

The Kosovo status process is entering its final and decisive phase. As the UN Security Council prepares to review President Ahtisaari's recommendations, we will be engaged in full and intensive consultations with our Security Council partners and the parties.

The resolution of Kosovo's status should be seen in the historical context of the tragic circumstances of the break-up of Yugoslavia, which began in the 1990s. The UN Security Council, which in 1999 passed a resolution that placed Kosovo under UN administration and envisioned a political process to determine status, has long treated Kosovo as a special case.

Since the crisis in this region began sixteen years ago, President George W.

Bush and his two predecessors have worked to realize a vision of a Europe, whole, free and at peace. We believe that President Ahtisaari's proposals will allow the region to move beyond the conflicts of the 1990s and towards a brighter Euro-Atlantic future.

Russia for resumption of diplomatic talks over Kosovo - Kamynin

ITAR-TASS (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) 26.03.2007, 14.44

MOSCOW, March 26 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's position on the issue of a settlement in Kosovo remains unchanged, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin told Itar-Tass. The UN Secretary General's special envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, is due to present his settlement plan to the UN Security Council later on Monday.

"We are for continuing the process of diplomatic negotiations over Kosovo with the aim of finding a compromise option," the diplomat said. "No artificial solution of the problem will be possible."

The UN Security Council will first examine the Ahtisaari plan. Specific proposals by the parties concerned will be made later, after the SC discusses the special envoy's proposal next month.

The Ahtsaari plan envisages wide sovereignty for the Serbian territory of Kosovo under international control and the auspices of the European Union, the possibility of its membership of international organizations and the adoption of its own constitution.

Russia has repeatedly pointed to the need for continuing the negotiating process. It also believes that Ahtisaari may be replaced by another envoy, if he fails to achieve more. Moscow believes it would be too early to plug the UN Security Council into solving the Kosovo problem now and will be prepared to support a solution that would suit both sides.

Continued uncertainty about its status may destabilize the region, U.N. envoy reports

By Maggie Farley
LA Times
March 27, 2007

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. mediator for Kosovo said Monday that independence was the "only viable option" for the ethnic Albanian province in Serbia, a recommendation that may set up a Security Council deadlock between Serbia's ally Russia and the West.
U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, who tried for a year to broker an agreement between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, reported to the council that talks had proved fruitless and that continued uncertainty about Kosovo's status would be destabilizing for the province and the region. For eight years since its devastating civil war, the province has been governed by the United Nations, and neither full Serbian control nor autonomy within Serbia would be tenable, Ahtisaari's report says.

Kosovo's limbo status has left it unable to develop its economy, gain access to international finance or attract foreign investment, all of which has led to further political instability.

"Upon careful consideration of Kosovo's recent history, the realities of Kosovo today, and taking into account the negotiations with the parties, I have come to the conclusion that the only viable option for Kosovo is independence, to be supervised for an initial period by the international community," Ahtisaari wrote.

In the weeks before presenting the report, Ahtisaari had carefully avoided the word "independence," saying he would leave it to the Security Council to decide the next steps. But in his report, the former president of Finland strongly urged the council to endorse his recommendation for independence.

In a proposal for Kosovo's "status settlement," included with the report, he outlined a transition period with a European Union representative and the support of NATO troops and European police to ensure stability while Kosovo's leaders developed political and legal institutions. They would write their own constitution and hold democratic elections within nine months of completion of the terms of the settlement, the proposal says.

Provisions of the settlement address the fragile coexistence of ethnic Albanians, Serbs and other minorities in Kosovo, calling for a "multiethnic society" and guarantees for minority representation in the community and Kosovo Assembly. The official languages would be Albanian and Serbian; Turkish, Bosnian and Roma would also be recognized. The Kosovo Serb community would have a "high degree of control over its own affairs," the proposal says.

Ahtisaari tried to allay Russian and Chinese concerns that granting Kosovo independence would encourage separatist movements in multiethnic countries.

"Kosovo is a unique case that demands a unique solution," the report says. "It does not create a precedent for other unresolved conflicts."

The Security Council is to begin discussing the report April 3, diplomats said. The debate could be a long one. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov has criticized Ahtisaari for giving up on negotiations and called for him to be replaced by someone more optimistic about the prospect of compromise.

Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, said independence for Kosovo in any form was "unacceptable." Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu welcomed the proposal as "a historic day for Kosovo" and said independence would help build "peace, stability and prosperity" in the province, according to an Associated Press report from its capital, Pristina.

The U.S. strongly backs independence for Kosovo, said R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of State for political affairs.

"Finally, after eight years, the people of Kosovo are going to know where their future lies and what their status shall be, and the United States does support the proposal, he said in Brussels.

Chairman of the Russian chamber of commerce and former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov wrote in an op-ed published by the Moskovskie Novosti of his recent stay in Belgrade where he had informal, extensive talks with both President Boris Tadić and Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and gained “some interesting insights.”

“My general impression from what I saw and heard is that no one, primarily in Washington, understands just how deeply ingrained the issue of Kosovo is in the minds of the Serbs,” Primakov wrote

He said that “some Western politicians may have hoped that President Tadic would put EU membership above Serbia's territorial integrity,” which did not happen as” both Kostunica and Tadic categorically rejected independence for Kosovo.”

Primakov gave detailes of his talks to Tadić and Koštunica who introduced him to the details of Belgrade’s stance over Kosovo, as he cited three main points in the position of the Serbian leadership

“First, a fundamental solution to the Kosovo problem should be based on the preservation of the province's de jure status as part of Serbia with maximum independence [autonomy] rights,” Primakov writes adding that “the second point meant that Serbia was not turning its back on the West.”

Primakov said that “According to Koštunica, the country's course toward integration into the EU is still on.

However, this course should not impede relations with Russia, as “according to Tadić, Serbia has three foreign policy priorities: rapprochement with the European Union, the United States, and Russia,” Primakov added.

He particularly stressed the third point, according to which “the Serbian leadership is striving to continue negotiations with the Kosovo Albanians, harmonize positions and achieve a compromise formula that would be acceptable to both sides.”

He went on to elaborate on his impressions from the  meetings with Serbia's top officials saying that “not all negotiating avenues have been exhausted yet.”

“I have often heard the question: Why act in such haste in dealing with this complex, long-standing problem? Unsurprisingly, many see "PR moves by the U.S. administration" behind this haste,” Primakov argued and explained:

“After leaving office, President Bush will go down in history not just with an "Iraq stigma" but also with victory in the Balkans, meaning that the air strikes on Belgrade eight years ago were not in vain,” Primakov wrote.

he commented on Richard Holbrooke's statement, predicting that delay in resolving the Kosovo issue would lead to more bloodshed.

"Should, God forbid, the scenario be played out, many questions are bound to arise: NATO forces and police have been deployed in Kosovo for the past eight years, therefore this entire international operation, initiated by the United States, has failed to establish stability in the province?" Primakov wondered.

He added that "if anti-Serb violence was possible even in the presence of international forces, what would be in store for the Serbian minority should Kosovo gain independence?"

At the end of his op-ed Primakov drew attention “to yet another problem,” saying that “once Kosovo is granted independence, the Bosnian state, created with so much difficulty, could start coming apart at the seams.”

“It cannot be ruled out that centrifugal trends will reemerge and start picking up pace. Bosnian Serbs could start gravitating toward Serbia, while a similar trend among Bosnian Croats with respect to Croatia could result in their secession from the Croatian-Muslim federation in Bosnia,” the former Russian prime minister concluded. 

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