New Burmesia
21-02-2007, 21:50
There's been quite a bit in the news recently about Kosovo, with recent elections in Serbia and the UN taking steps towards independence, albeit with significant guarantees for the Serb minority. Two things strike me about this. One, unsurprisingly, the fact that Serbia will cling to only ethnically 7% Serbian Kosovo, and the second that Russia seems to be heavily supporting Serbia, which is hardly in their interests.
Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders are deadlocked over the future status of Kosovo, United Nations special envoy Martti Ahtisaari has said.
Speaking in Vienna at the final round of talks on the fate of the UN protectorate, Mr Ahtissari said he did not see any prospect of an agreement.
The focus is a set of UN proposals which would give Kosovo all the trappings of an independent state.
Albanians broadly accept the plan, but Serbia opposes independence for Kosovo.
The province has been administered by the UN since a Nato bombing campaign in 1999 ended a violent Serb crackdown against ethnic Albanians, some of whom had taken up arms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6380565.stm
Mr Ahtisaari has spent more than a year crafting the blueprint for an independent Kosovo. The result is a masterpiece of nuanced nation-building that creates all the conditions and rules for the new country without declaring it independent or sovereign. The independence declaration bit will come from Kosovo if and when the Ahtisaari plan is blessed by the UN security council. "It's a good package, a decent compromise," said a western diplomat in Pristina. "The Albanian side can work with it. The Serbs got everything they asked for, but will still reject it in its entirety."
...
In his Serbian village every second house is for sale. A neighbouring village, Serbian a decade ago, is now Albanian. Mr Blakqorri came home from Cologne and bought out a Serbian family. Other Serb farmsteads and cottages have been torched or dynamited.
Nato forces and UN agencies are preparing for an exodus. "We'll see a number of Serbs leave," a senior western official said. "The Serbs of Kosovo are scared. It might be irrational, but they fear the majority population."
For Serbia, the Ahtisaari formula is a humiliation. The independence of Kosovo is the last act in the bloody drama of 15 years of Yugoslavia's disintegration. But whereas the other parts of the former Yugoslavia that are now countries were republics in the old communist federation, Kosovo was always a province within Serbia, even after Nato drove the Serbs out eight years ago and the region came under UN administration. Up to 150,000 Serbs still live there.
Serbia's prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, has ordered Kosovo's Serbs to sever all links with Kosovan Albanian authorities. A Serb-dominated northern stretch of the province, concentrated around the northern half of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, functions essentially as part of Serbia, which it borders. The car plates are Serbian, the currency is the Serbian dinar. Teaching and hospital staff are paid by Belgrade, which pours in €135m a year.
"The Ahtisaari plan will be accepted and implemented, but it will never work," said Oliver Ivanovic, a moderate Serb politician in Mitrovica. "This [Serb] northern bit will secede." The region is run by hardliners. Paramilitary thugs sit in the cafes overlooking the Ibar river that divides the town to ensure no Albanians cross over. Mitrovica follows orders from Belgrade and few step out of line. When a Serb basketball team started playing in the Kosovo league the coach's car was blown up.
...
Tensions are rising and things could easily career out of control. "We've had ethnic cleansing, heavy bombing, attempted genocide here," said Veton Surroi, a Kosovan Albanian liberal politician. "The Serbs have to decide if this is their home. We've paid a heavy price, but we're getting our independence."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,,2016994,00.html
Anyone looking forward to the Republic of Kosovo, or will it always be like Nuclear Fusion - only ever tomorrow's solution?
Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders are deadlocked over the future status of Kosovo, United Nations special envoy Martti Ahtisaari has said.
Speaking in Vienna at the final round of talks on the fate of the UN protectorate, Mr Ahtissari said he did not see any prospect of an agreement.
The focus is a set of UN proposals which would give Kosovo all the trappings of an independent state.
Albanians broadly accept the plan, but Serbia opposes independence for Kosovo.
The province has been administered by the UN since a Nato bombing campaign in 1999 ended a violent Serb crackdown against ethnic Albanians, some of whom had taken up arms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6380565.stm
Mr Ahtisaari has spent more than a year crafting the blueprint for an independent Kosovo. The result is a masterpiece of nuanced nation-building that creates all the conditions and rules for the new country without declaring it independent or sovereign. The independence declaration bit will come from Kosovo if and when the Ahtisaari plan is blessed by the UN security council. "It's a good package, a decent compromise," said a western diplomat in Pristina. "The Albanian side can work with it. The Serbs got everything they asked for, but will still reject it in its entirety."
...
In his Serbian village every second house is for sale. A neighbouring village, Serbian a decade ago, is now Albanian. Mr Blakqorri came home from Cologne and bought out a Serbian family. Other Serb farmsteads and cottages have been torched or dynamited.
Nato forces and UN agencies are preparing for an exodus. "We'll see a number of Serbs leave," a senior western official said. "The Serbs of Kosovo are scared. It might be irrational, but they fear the majority population."
For Serbia, the Ahtisaari formula is a humiliation. The independence of Kosovo is the last act in the bloody drama of 15 years of Yugoslavia's disintegration. But whereas the other parts of the former Yugoslavia that are now countries were republics in the old communist federation, Kosovo was always a province within Serbia, even after Nato drove the Serbs out eight years ago and the region came under UN administration. Up to 150,000 Serbs still live there.
Serbia's prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, has ordered Kosovo's Serbs to sever all links with Kosovan Albanian authorities. A Serb-dominated northern stretch of the province, concentrated around the northern half of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, functions essentially as part of Serbia, which it borders. The car plates are Serbian, the currency is the Serbian dinar. Teaching and hospital staff are paid by Belgrade, which pours in €135m a year.
"The Ahtisaari plan will be accepted and implemented, but it will never work," said Oliver Ivanovic, a moderate Serb politician in Mitrovica. "This [Serb] northern bit will secede." The region is run by hardliners. Paramilitary thugs sit in the cafes overlooking the Ibar river that divides the town to ensure no Albanians cross over. Mitrovica follows orders from Belgrade and few step out of line. When a Serb basketball team started playing in the Kosovo league the coach's car was blown up.
...
Tensions are rising and things could easily career out of control. "We've had ethnic cleansing, heavy bombing, attempted genocide here," said Veton Surroi, a Kosovan Albanian liberal politician. "The Serbs have to decide if this is their home. We've paid a heavy price, but we're getting our independence."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,,2016994,00.html
Anyone looking forward to the Republic of Kosovo, or will it always be like Nuclear Fusion - only ever tomorrow's solution?