Kostunica warns Kosovo Albanians against 'illegal' independence move
ELLIE TZORTZI IN BELGRADE

SERB Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica last night warned Kosovo Albanians against an "illegal" declaration of independence and called for talks on the territory's future to resume.

He proposed new talks be held in Kosovo and Serbia instead of abroad. Almost 18 months of mediated talks, mostly in Vienna but also Brussels and London, have failed to reach an accord.

"Serbia wants to negotiate and it's essential that a political and democratic settlement ... is found through talks," Kostunica said.

Serbia was ready for negotiations "in any town in the province, and for the next round to be held in Belgrade".

Kostunica said Kosovo Albanians wanting "an illegal declaration of independence" instead of talks were launching "a dangerous experiment with unpredictable consequences".

A report made available by diplomats at the UN on Friday said there was no compromise to be found between Serbia's offer of autonomy and the Albanian independence demand after the mediated talks ran up against a deadline tomorrow.

The United States and almost all European Union member states support independence for the territory, seeing it as the best way to ensure stability in the Balkans. Kosovo Albanians say they will declare it within weeks.

But Russia, an ally of Serbia, asked again on Friday for talks to continue until the two sides reach an agreement. It has said it wants any final solution for Kosovo to go through the United Nations Security Council, where Russia has a veto. "It is of the greatest importance that the Security Council support the proposal of Russia," Kostunica said. Serbia gives "its full support to this constructive Russian initiative which aims to avoid a great crisis".

In Kosovo, a 550-strong German reserve force temporarily reinforcing 16,000 Nato peacekeepers, carried out helicopter and ground exercises centred on Prekaz, once the heartland of the Kosovo Albanian guerrilla resistance to Serb rule.

Nato ministers on Friday pledged to keep the peace force at current strength, and make more troops available to deal with any outbreak of violence.

Nato fears Serbs in the north, where they form the majority, could try to break away from an independent Kosovo, potentially sparking Albanian retaliation against isolated Serb enclaves elsewhere in the province

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday the United States was hindering the search for a solution, RIA news agency reported.

"Unfortunately, the fixation of some Western capitals - above all Washington - with independence for Kosovo and that there is no alternative to such independence... is now the main hindrance on the path to a negotiated settlement," he said.

Nato bombed Serbia for 11 weeks in 1999 to drive Serb forces out of Kosovo and halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year Serb counter-insurgency war.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss the mediators' report on December 19. But Washington and the major EU powers have indicated they are ready to recognise Kosovo without a new UN resolution, and the EU is preparing to deploy a mission to take over supervision of the territory from the United Nations.

Diplomats say Kosovo could declare independence in late January at the earliest.

Jim Murphy, the Europe minister, said Kosovo was the "most immediate and urgent" issue facing EU leaders at a summit this week in Brussels.

He said: "We have to lead on the issue of Kosovo, the international community must honour our commitment to her independence.

"We can't allow an unreasonable veto by Russia at the United Nations to stop this and we cannot wait on the United States to deliver this."

This article: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/in ... 1920422007

Last updated: 09-Dec-07 01:05 GMT
Comments

1. Dr. James Wilkie / 9:29am 9 Dec 2007

Before supporting independence for Kosovo, could the Western states conduct a survey to find out how many of the present Albanian population were actually born in Kosovo? The result might open their eyes to what they are condoning.

There is no way that an independent Kosovo can be economically viable. It would still be dependent on Serbia for its energy supplies and much else. I can envisage independence only as an intermediate step to union with Albania, and there is no way that that will be acceptable to its Serbian population.

Kosovo as a whole was never an Albanian province. The Greater Albania protectorate under Mussolini and Hitler included only the border region of Kosovo that was inhabited by the Albanian minority. It is therefore completely wrong to speak of "Kosovo" wanting independence. The history of how it came to an Albanian majority in the province is only one aspect of what is in effect a coup d'état by a single faction.

The criminal folly of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's repressive policy in Kosovo led to the breakup of Yugoslavia, when the Slovenes and Croats saw it as the thin end of a wedge that would eventually be applied to them too. And now the final chapter of the Albanian reaction has set in. That, however, does not justify independence for an ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo that never was, and I fear that such a step will by no means be the end of the story.
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2. Inspector Murdoch, Drylaw. / 9:41am 9 Dec 2007

1. Dr. James Wilkie.

You make no reference to the Pizren Agreement.
I advise you to read it ,and then revist your comment.
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3. Dr. James Wilkie / 7:07pm 9 Dec 2007

I am aware of the postwar Pizren Agreement (not to be confused with the 2001 Pritzren Agreement). After the war Josip Broz Tito (of Slovene/Croat parentage) set out to organise the Yugoslav federation in such a way that the Serbs would not be able to attain a dominating position within it. His measures to this end included autonomy for the ethnically mixed Kosovo and Voyvodina provinces of Serbia.

Yugoslavia's serious nationality problems began in mid-1987, when Slobodan Milosevic became leader of the Serbian Communist Party and set out to restore Serbia's leading position within Yugoslavia. The revised Serbian constitution he promulgated on 28 September 1990 reintegrated Kosovo and Voyvodina into Serbia against the wishes of the local populations - a clear attack on the system set up by Tito to keep the Serbs in check. As a result, Milosevic did his own Serbian people the same disservice that Hitler did the eastern Germans.

Massive Serbian violations of human rights in Kosovo and Voyvodina, with no constitutional means of stopping them, together with his plans for a more centralised Yugoslav state, aroused alarm amongst the Slovenes and other non-Serbian peoples, and led directly to the breakup of the federation. I was there, and I heard this direct from the mouths of the statesmen concerned.

The "historic mission" of Serbia under Milosevic was to enable the Serbian populations of the other Yugoslav republics to live in a single state, and that meant centralising Yugoslavia. There was no way that the Croats and especially the Slovenes were going to stand for that. They were thoroughly alarmed by Serbia's violent handling of the Kosovo issue, and by the wave of rampant nationalism in Serbia, with huge mass demonstrations and violent slogans, and the result was their long-prepared declarations of independence.

I followed this saga all the way through, not only from personal experience, but also because because for 16 years I was editor of the Austrian Foreign Policy Yearbook on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, and I recorded it direct from the departmental diplomatic reports. It has been well said that truth is the first casualty of war, but on this issue there are so many truths that are self-evident to the various opposing parties that a single solution is as good as impossible. The Albanian reaction is understandable, but whether the establishment of a non-viable state of Kosovo requiring indefinite international support is the answer is another matter entirely.

This is what you get with uncontrolled Illegal Immigration