Post by Bozur on Nov 24, 2007 15:39:31 GMT -5
INSIGHT: The Kosovo formula?
17:00 Fri 23 Nov 2007
Talking about Kosovo becoming independent has never been easy. The outcome of the territory’s November 17 election, which could well prove one of the final episodes before independence becomes reality, has made it even more difficult. Reporting by Clive Leviev-Sawyer of The Sofia Echo and by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
MEMORY: A monument in the village of Morina, 50km north-west
of the Kosovo capital Pristina, to Kosovo Albanian guerrillas killed
during the 1998/99 war.
Photo: REUTERS
Events in the unfolding saga of the future of Kosovo seem at once inevitable and unpredictable.
Ever since United Nations special envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari released his report earlier this year effectively recommending independence for the territory, and ever since UN and European Union diplomats engaged with Belgrade and Moscow in seeking a compromise that would make effective independence possible, and ever since it became clear that only independence-minded ethnic Albanians would vote in the November 17 elections in Kosovo, independence has seemed a matter of time.
But there is much to make the “final” outcome unpredictable. The question of just how far Russia and Serbia, among others, are prepared to go to block independence. The question of just how determined the leaders of Kosovo are to follow through the calls and the mood for a unilateral declaration of independence. The question of just how true are the rumours that Washington and several European capitals already have drafted, at least in their heads, statements accepting such independence. The real question of whether a workable solution could be found by December 10, a date that has taken on iconic status, the final day in the timeframe of status settlement talks being managed by a troika of the United States, EU and Russia, after which the matter will be referred back to the UN Security Council. With the answer to the final question apparently being “no”, the question of whether the Western Balkans are heading for new instability or a new European future.
In the days after the November 17 elections, unity on a formula for Kosovo eluded the EU itself. From the EU, one of the key messages was directed to Kosovo, to try to talk a future government out of a unilateral declaration of independence.
This quickly became a mantra, including in Sofia. Emerging from a meeting with EU diplomats accredited to Bulgaria, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin told journalists: “The unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence in not in anyone’s interest”.
“I hope that Kosovo will not declare independence at the lack of agreement immediately after December 10 when the international mediators should present a report on the results of the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina to the UN Secretary-General,” Kalfin said. He said that after December 10, when the talks between between Belgrade and Pristina would be over, there should be talks between Pristina and the international community and between Belgrade and the international community.
From Brussels, where the Belgrade-Pristina talks chaperoned by the troika were taking place, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on November 20 that Kosovo’s future leader, Hashim Thaci, had promised to heed US and EU warnings against any rash moves toward independence.
“Kosovo is ready for independence, we are prepared, but we will co-operate very closely,” AFP quoted Thaci as saying as he arrived for a new round of negotiations with Serbian officials. “Kosovo will do nothing without co-ordination with our partners in Washington and Brussels,” he said.
Reuters reported that Portuguese foreign minister Luis Amado said Wolfgang Ischinger, the German diplomat leading the negotiations, would look to float a so-called “status-neutral” proposal to regulate ties between Pristina and Belgrade without pre-judging any future move to decide Kosovo’s final status.
The idea has its origins in a 1972 pact that normalised ties between West and East Germany without prejudging the question of unification, which only happened 18 years later after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Earlier, Kosovo leaders rejected Belgrade’s proposal of a “Hong Kong” formula. With neither the East-West Germany model nor the Hong Kong formulas likely to be accepted, a Kosovo formula appeared to be close to impossible to achieve.
www.sofiaecho.com/
17:00 Fri 23 Nov 2007
Talking about Kosovo becoming independent has never been easy. The outcome of the territory’s November 17 election, which could well prove one of the final episodes before independence becomes reality, has made it even more difficult. Reporting by Clive Leviev-Sawyer of The Sofia Echo and by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
MEMORY: A monument in the village of Morina, 50km north-west
of the Kosovo capital Pristina, to Kosovo Albanian guerrillas killed
during the 1998/99 war.
Photo: REUTERS
Events in the unfolding saga of the future of Kosovo seem at once inevitable and unpredictable.
Ever since United Nations special envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari released his report earlier this year effectively recommending independence for the territory, and ever since UN and European Union diplomats engaged with Belgrade and Moscow in seeking a compromise that would make effective independence possible, and ever since it became clear that only independence-minded ethnic Albanians would vote in the November 17 elections in Kosovo, independence has seemed a matter of time.
But there is much to make the “final” outcome unpredictable. The question of just how far Russia and Serbia, among others, are prepared to go to block independence. The question of just how determined the leaders of Kosovo are to follow through the calls and the mood for a unilateral declaration of independence. The question of just how true are the rumours that Washington and several European capitals already have drafted, at least in their heads, statements accepting such independence. The real question of whether a workable solution could be found by December 10, a date that has taken on iconic status, the final day in the timeframe of status settlement talks being managed by a troika of the United States, EU and Russia, after which the matter will be referred back to the UN Security Council. With the answer to the final question apparently being “no”, the question of whether the Western Balkans are heading for new instability or a new European future.
In the days after the November 17 elections, unity on a formula for Kosovo eluded the EU itself. From the EU, one of the key messages was directed to Kosovo, to try to talk a future government out of a unilateral declaration of independence.
This quickly became a mantra, including in Sofia. Emerging from a meeting with EU diplomats accredited to Bulgaria, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin told journalists: “The unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence in not in anyone’s interest”.
“I hope that Kosovo will not declare independence at the lack of agreement immediately after December 10 when the international mediators should present a report on the results of the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina to the UN Secretary-General,” Kalfin said. He said that after December 10, when the talks between between Belgrade and Pristina would be over, there should be talks between Pristina and the international community and between Belgrade and the international community.
From Brussels, where the Belgrade-Pristina talks chaperoned by the troika were taking place, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on November 20 that Kosovo’s future leader, Hashim Thaci, had promised to heed US and EU warnings against any rash moves toward independence.
“Kosovo is ready for independence, we are prepared, but we will co-operate very closely,” AFP quoted Thaci as saying as he arrived for a new round of negotiations with Serbian officials. “Kosovo will do nothing without co-ordination with our partners in Washington and Brussels,” he said.
Reuters reported that Portuguese foreign minister Luis Amado said Wolfgang Ischinger, the German diplomat leading the negotiations, would look to float a so-called “status-neutral” proposal to regulate ties between Pristina and Belgrade without pre-judging any future move to decide Kosovo’s final status.
The idea has its origins in a 1972 pact that normalised ties between West and East Germany without prejudging the question of unification, which only happened 18 years later after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Earlier, Kosovo leaders rejected Belgrade’s proposal of a “Hong Kong” formula. With neither the East-West Germany model nor the Hong Kong formulas likely to be accepted, a Kosovo formula appeared to be close to impossible to achieve.
www.sofiaecho.com/