Mediocre intermediaries

The UN Secretary General requested a report on Kosovo ahead of schedule

Today, international mediators working on the status of Kosovo will submit a report on the results of their four-month activities to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. According to Vremya Novostei information obtained from Serbian sources, the report is imbued with pessimism. Representatives of Russia, the United States and the European Union, united in a “troika,” stated that, despite all their efforts, the leadership of Serbia and the authorities of the Kosovo Autonomy have not reached a compromise on the status of Kosovo. The negotiations, which lasted from August to November, failed, and now on December 19 the UN Security Council will decide what to do next.

Previously, it was assumed that the report would appear on the table of the head of the United Nations only on December 10. However, Ban Ki-moon hurried the mediators, citing the need to read the report in a calm atmosphere at his headquarters in New York, and not during a visit in the coming days to an international climate conference on the Indonesian island of Bali.

“There was no political motive in this,” the UN Secretary General said yesterday, adding that he was already aware of the failure of the mediation mission. According to him, “the report certainly says that the parties were unable to reach an agreement.”

The document, judging by the leaks, details the progress of negotiations between the leadership of Serbia and the authorities of the Kosovo Autonomous Region through the mediation of the “troika”. It analyzes the initiatives taken by Serbs and Albanians. Serbian diplomats, who wished to remain anonymous, told Vremya Novostey that their position is reflected quite fully in the report. For example, it contains compromise proposals from Belgrade on the possibility of granting Kosovo broad autonomy on the model of the Chinese Hong Kong or on the example of the Åland Islands, inhabited by Swedes, but part of Finland. However, the Serbs are unhappy that the report does not emphasize the need to find a solution to the Kosovo problem based on preserving the territorial integrity of Serbia.

International mediators do not present any proposals of their own in the document. They explained this by the specifics of their mandate - to facilitate negotiations, and not to impose ready-made solutions on the parties.

The Albanian leaders of Kosovo are more indifferent to the report than the Serbs. The Albanians have repeatedly stated that the failure of the mediation mission will prompt them to declare the region's independence unilaterally. They are confident in the support of the United States, which has influence on most EU member countries. “However, hopes for a speedy recognition of Kosovo’s independence by the Americans may turn out to be unfounded,” Alexander Karasev, an expert at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vremya Novostey. In his opinion, “The United States cannot fail to understand that recognition of Kosovo’s independence will inevitably create new hotbeds of conflict, including in areas that the Americans consider the sphere of their geopolitical interests - the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Near and Middle East.” In addition, financial considerations may play a limiting role. “Extinguishing new crisis areas will require significant funds. This is not in the interests of the Americans, who are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says Vremya Novostey’s interlocutor.

Petr ISKENDEROV