Kosovo in fog

The UN Security Council has not clarified the future status of the region

Yesterday, the UN Security Council discussed the situation in Kosovo at a special meeting. The head of the regional UN mission, German diplomat Joachim Rücker, outlined his vision of the situation, and the head of the coordination center for Kosovo and Metohija under the Serbian government, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, introduced the Security Council members to Belgrade’s position. A written report on the situation in Kosovo by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was also discussed, containing the opinion of his special representative at the negotiations on Kosovo, Finn Martti Ahtisaari.

As might be expected, the parties' assessments varied widely. The head of the UN mission praised the political maturity of Kosovo's Albanian leaders and insisted on transferring new powers to them from the international administration. “The Provisional Institutions in Kosovo have demonstrated a clear desire to take responsibility for minority issues and improve their own performance in an attempt to increase the credibility of Pristina in negotiations on the future status of Kosovo,” Mr. Ruecker said in his report. In his opinion, the negotiation process on the status of the region has a beneficial effect on the situation in Kosovo, stimulating local Albanian authorities to more actively implement “democratic standards.” As for the position of the Serbian side, the head of the UN mission bluntly called it “obstructionist.”

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has a more balanced opinion. He believes that during the six months of negotiations on Kosovo (they began in February in Vienna), neither the Serbs nor the Albanians made concessions. However, the Secretary General does not lose hope that during subsequent rounds the parties “will demonstrate much more willingness to compromise.” As for the situation in the region itself, he called it “fragile but stable.” The Secretary General disputed the optimistic assessments of Joachim Rücker, emphasizing that the negotiation process “has not yet had a noticeable impact” on internal processes in Kosovo.

Finally, Ms. Raskovic-Ivic called for abandoning the “nervous, unreasonable rush” on the issue of Kosovo’s status, but the main criticism was addressed to the international administration of the region, which is unable to protect local Serbs, create conditions for the return of non-Albanian refugees, and punish those responsible for numerous crimes against the Serbian population. Her words were given additional weight by a report received several hours before the meeting about another terrorist attack in Kosovo. In a Serbian village in the north-west of the region, a house belonging to a Serbian family that had recently returned to Kosovo was blown up. Shortly before this, Albanian extremists threatened that they would “destroy all the houses to which the Serbs return.”

Russia is also unhappy with the situation in Kosovo. Russian permanent representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said yesterday from the rostrum of the Security Council that the actions of regional authorities to protect national minorities “remain insufficient and inconsistent.” “Crimes against the Serbian minority often remain not fully investigated, and the criminals go unpunished. To question the fact that at least the overwhelming majority of these crimes were committed on ethnic grounds means to ignore the facts known to everyone,” the Russian diplomat emphasized.

Now much will depend on the further steps of Martti Ahtisaari. The Kosovo newspaper Zeri reported yesterday that on September 20, the special representative of the UN Secretary General will meet in New York with diplomats of the Contact Group (which includes Russia, the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and France). Following the meeting, Mr. Ahtisaari is expected to report to the UN Security Council, scheduled for September 22.

A Vremya Novostei source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “Mr. Ahtisaari is driven by the desire to quickly complete his mandate as the chief Kosovo negotiator, and if possible, to win laurels for himself. However, what is happening at the Vienna negotiations does not yet bring us closer to the desired solution. There is always someone slamming the door, someone leaving - either Serbs or Albanians. Planned meetings are being cancelled.” Under these conditions, the UN special representative, in order to speed up the process, “will try to prove that a negotiated solution is difficult to achieve, and then will try to push through his own options without first securing the support of the Serbian and Albanian delegations,” noted the interlocutor of our newspaper.

Petr ISKENDEROV