A U.S. military plane with nine people on board crashed in a mountainous area of southern Albania on Thursday, exploding in a ball of flame, police and villagers said.
"It is thought the people on board have died, but this is not confirmed," Public Order Ministry spokesman Florion Serjani told Reuters.
Serjani said the control tower at Albania's Rinas airport "saw the plane move in an irregular way while it was flying over a valley" in southeast Albania.
Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Mackin, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Germany, confirmed the plane had crashed, but added he could not confirm how many people were on board.
"We are trying to establish that with their base units. They came out of Mildenhall base in the United Kingdom," he told Reuters.
The plane had probably been trying to reach the nearby military airfield of Kucove.
Serjani said the C-130 had been taking part in exercises in Albania and crashed in the area of Gramsh.
He said the mountainous terrain had forced police to abandon their vehicles and proceed to the crash site on foot.
Albania's general staff chief Pellumb Qazimi told Reuters he had sent troops to the area and planned to fly helicopters there by dawn.
"The villagers said they were awoken by an explosion and saw giant flames in the Driza mountain," a reporter for Albania's News24 network said.
The area is covered by snow up to two meters (six feet) deep. A U.S. helicopter was reported to be monitoring the crash site.
Two U.S. pilots died when their Apache helicopter crashed in Albania in May 5, 1999 while it was on a night-time training mission in preparation for possible use in the Kosovo conflict.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Kosovo '04 Trade Gap Widens 7.3 % Y/Y - Table
(c) 2005 SeeNews - South East Europe Newswire. All Rights Reserved. editor@see-news.com.
PRISTINA (Serbia and Montenegro), March 31 (SeeNews) - The trade deficit of the UN-run southern Serbian province of Kosovo rose by 7.3 % last year, reaching one billion euro ($1.3 billion), the Kosovo Statistics Office reported on Thursday.
KOSOVO TRADE BALANCE (in millions of euro)
..........................'04..............'03
Exports................56.6..........35.6
Imports...........1,063..........973.3
Balance..........-1,006.........-937.7
NOTE: Kosovo, population around two million, is still part of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, which succeeded rump Yugoslavia two years ago. The province has been administered by the United Nations since 1999.
($=0.7688 euro)
www.see-news.com
Source: SeeNews (TM/BMK/RD)
PRISTINA (Serbia and Montenegro), March 31 (SeeNews) - The trade deficit of the UN-run southern Serbian province of Kosovo rose by 7.3 % last year, reaching one billion euro ($1.3 billion), the Kosovo Statistics Office reported on Thursday.
KOSOVO TRADE BALANCE (in millions of euro)
..........................'04..............'03
Exports................56.6..........35.6
Imports...........1,063..........973.3
Balance..........-1,006.........-937.7
NOTE: Kosovo, population around two million, is still part of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, which succeeded rump Yugoslavia two years ago. The province has been administered by the United Nations since 1999.
($=0.7688 euro)
www.see-news.com
Source: SeeNews (TM/BMK/RD)
Members of KTA Board in Kosovo Agree on 5th Privatisation Round
PRISTINA – The members of the KTA Board agreed today that they were happy if DSRSG Ruecker launched the 5th privatisation round. In its first meeting after 15 months, the members of the board expressed their wish for a speedy continuation of the privatisation process.
After discussions on current technical issues regarding the legal status of the KTA, Deputy Managing Director Ahmet Shala presented results of the 3rd and 4th privatisation round. As to the 5th round, Shala explained that KTA prepared 15 Socially Owned Enterprises to be privatised, which have been transformed into 30 “NewCos” (new companies).
KTA official Ilir Salihu introduced to the members of the board a report on the progress of the Publicly Owned Enterprises Incorporation Project. “Immediate actions are needed in order to proceed with the next phase of incorporation”, said Salihu. These actions include approval of the restructuring plans for PTK and Pristina Airport. The members of the board welcomed the report.
Addressing the press, DSRSG Ruecker announced to launch the 5th privatisation round in April. He also said that he will sign and ratify the majority of contracts of the 4th round within the next ten days. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Haki Shatri said: “The climate has changed regarding privatisation and also incorporation. This meeting has put into movement many things, as for example the 5th privatisation round.” Minister Dugolli also expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and called it “successful”.
After discussions on current technical issues regarding the legal status of the KTA, Deputy Managing Director Ahmet Shala presented results of the 3rd and 4th privatisation round. As to the 5th round, Shala explained that KTA prepared 15 Socially Owned Enterprises to be privatised, which have been transformed into 30 “NewCos” (new companies).
KTA official Ilir Salihu introduced to the members of the board a report on the progress of the Publicly Owned Enterprises Incorporation Project. “Immediate actions are needed in order to proceed with the next phase of incorporation”, said Salihu. These actions include approval of the restructuring plans for PTK and Pristina Airport. The members of the board welcomed the report.
Addressing the press, DSRSG Ruecker announced to launch the 5th privatisation round in April. He also said that he will sign and ratify the majority of contracts of the 4th round within the next ten days. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Haki Shatri said: “The climate has changed regarding privatisation and also incorporation. This meeting has put into movement many things, as for example the 5th privatisation round.” Minister Dugolli also expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and called it “successful”.
AFTER HARADINAJ - THE ECONOMIST
Mar 31st 2005
Tense moments before final-status talks can begin
THE face of Ramush Haradinaj stares down from billboards and posters
across Kosovo's dusty capital. But alongside the images of the former
prime minister, now in custody in The Hague, where he faces charges
before the Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal, is a clumsily written message:
"our Prime has a job to do here". The point is to suggest that Mr
Haradinaj, once a rebel commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),
may still have a role to play in the province, which has been run as a
UN protectorate since 1999.
Mr Haradinaj's supporters, as well as Kosovo's Danish UN proconsul,
Soren Jessen Petersen, insist that, during his 100-day tenure of
office, the ex-guerrilla fighter was shaping up to be quite a good
prime minister. Yet last week, his post was taken by Bajram Kosumi, a
former student leader who was not a guerrilla fighter and was
previously environment minister. For the first time since Kosovo
elected a government of its own in 2001, there are no known former KLA
men in power.
Kosovo's (still provisional) government is assuming ever-increasing
responsibility as the UN-led administration devolves power in the
run-up to talks due to start later this year on the province's final
status. Before such talks can begin, according to the longstanding UN
mantra, Kosovo must show progress towards a number of internationally
imposed standards, in such areas as good democratic governance and
respect for minorities (code for the 100,000 Serbs and other
non-Albanians still clinging on in Kosovo).
The provisional government declared last week that it hoped to meet
most of these standards by June. More hopeful UN representatives agree
that progress is being made. Indeed, it may prove to be just enough--so
long as there is no relapse in security--to permit the final talks on
Kosovo's status to begin this autumn. Among the more vociferous of
Kosovo's estimated 1.8m ethnic Albanians, however, patience may be
running out. A recent poll taken by the UN itself showed that as many
as 75% of Kosovo's Albanians were dissatisfied, one way or another,
with the UN mission's progress.
But might hardliners, including ex-KLA men, pick up their guns and
stones again, as they did a year ago in a sudden, savage outbreak of
violence? It is quite possible. A roadside bomb narrowly failed to kill
Kosovo's president, Ibrahim Rugova, two weeks ago. Occasional hand
grenades and gunfire are being directed against UN soldiers. Who is
behind this violence? A shadowy Albanian rebel group claimed
responsibility for the attack on Mr Rugova, though NATO and UN
intelligence suggests that Albanian extremists on the political fringes
are at work. But the hand of Serbs, keen to disrupt any progress
towards independence for their former fief, cannot be discounted
either.
Tense moments before final-status talks can begin
THE face of Ramush Haradinaj stares down from billboards and posters
across Kosovo's dusty capital. But alongside the images of the former
prime minister, now in custody in The Hague, where he faces charges
before the Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal, is a clumsily written message:
"our Prime has a job to do here". The point is to suggest that Mr
Haradinaj, once a rebel commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),
may still have a role to play in the province, which has been run as a
UN protectorate since 1999.
Mr Haradinaj's supporters, as well as Kosovo's Danish UN proconsul,
Soren Jessen Petersen, insist that, during his 100-day tenure of
office, the ex-guerrilla fighter was shaping up to be quite a good
prime minister. Yet last week, his post was taken by Bajram Kosumi, a
former student leader who was not a guerrilla fighter and was
previously environment minister. For the first time since Kosovo
elected a government of its own in 2001, there are no known former KLA
men in power.
Kosovo's (still provisional) government is assuming ever-increasing
responsibility as the UN-led administration devolves power in the
run-up to talks due to start later this year on the province's final
status. Before such talks can begin, according to the longstanding UN
mantra, Kosovo must show progress towards a number of internationally
imposed standards, in such areas as good democratic governance and
respect for minorities (code for the 100,000 Serbs and other
non-Albanians still clinging on in Kosovo).
The provisional government declared last week that it hoped to meet
most of these standards by June. More hopeful UN representatives agree
that progress is being made. Indeed, it may prove to be just enough--so
long as there is no relapse in security--to permit the final talks on
Kosovo's status to begin this autumn. Among the more vociferous of
Kosovo's estimated 1.8m ethnic Albanians, however, patience may be
running out. A recent poll taken by the UN itself showed that as many
as 75% of Kosovo's Albanians were dissatisfied, one way or another,
with the UN mission's progress.
But might hardliners, including ex-KLA men, pick up their guns and
stones again, as they did a year ago in a sudden, savage outbreak of
violence? It is quite possible. A roadside bomb narrowly failed to kill
Kosovo's president, Ibrahim Rugova, two weeks ago. Occasional hand
grenades and gunfire are being directed against UN soldiers. Who is
behind this violence? A shadowy Albanian rebel group claimed
responsibility for the attack on Mr Rugova, though NATO and UN
intelligence suggests that Albanian extremists on the political fringes
are at work. But the hand of Serbs, keen to disrupt any progress
towards independence for their former fief, cannot be discounted
either.
UNMIK head tells displaced Kosovo Serbs, Roma he will stay in post
(c) 2005 The British Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Bujanovac, 30 March: UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief Soeren Jessen-Petersen told FoNet today that the return [of displaced people] to Kosovo was a priority issue, adding that this was why he had visited Bujanovac, where he had discussions with internally displaced Serbs and Romanies from Kosovo-Metohija.
Asked whether his visit to Bujanovac was a sign that he was going to change to another post - given that his predecessors always only came here prior their departure - Petersen replied that he "not only thought, but knew" that he would be here not only a month or two but longer, because as the UN secretary-general's special envoy for Kosovo-Metohija special issues [as received], he had much to do.
Petersen said that he "cooperated very closely" with [Serbian] Coordination Centre [for Kosovo-Metohija] chief Nebojsa Covic.
"Beside Mr Covic, I have a very good dialogue with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica," Petersen said.
Petersen said that Covic "was tasked to work on several technical issues which are of direct importance", adding that they had "very good dialogue" over that.
As previously announced, Petersen was to take over the post of UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 2040 gmt 30 Mar 05
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Bujanovac, 30 March: UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief Soeren Jessen-Petersen told FoNet today that the return [of displaced people] to Kosovo was a priority issue, adding that this was why he had visited Bujanovac, where he had discussions with internally displaced Serbs and Romanies from Kosovo-Metohija.
Asked whether his visit to Bujanovac was a sign that he was going to change to another post - given that his predecessors always only came here prior their departure - Petersen replied that he "not only thought, but knew" that he would be here not only a month or two but longer, because as the UN secretary-general's special envoy for Kosovo-Metohija special issues [as received], he had much to do.
Petersen said that he "cooperated very closely" with [Serbian] Coordination Centre [for Kosovo-Metohija] chief Nebojsa Covic.
"Beside Mr Covic, I have a very good dialogue with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica," Petersen said.
Petersen said that Covic "was tasked to work on several technical issues which are of direct importance", adding that they had "very good dialogue" over that.
As previously announced, Petersen was to take over the post of UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 2040 gmt 30 Mar 05
Kosovo police hold TV crew for 72 hours after violent incident
(c) 2005 The British Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Text of unattributed report entitled "ShPK members attack RTK crew, detain them for 72 hours" published by the Kosovo Albanian newspaper Koha Ditore on 31 March
Prishtina [Pristina], 30 March: Parking a vehicle in the wrong place has cost a crew of the Kosova [Kosovo] Radio Television [RTK] "dearly". The arguments between the RTK crew and the Kosova Police Service [ShPK] members in an effort to explain the situation ended in violence against RTK reporter Behxhet Begu. Though quite seriously injured, Begu and other members of the RTK crew - the cameraman and driver - ended up in the police station in Vushtrri [Vucitrn]. The police have confirmed that physical violence was used against the RTK crew, and Behxhet Begu has sustained slight injuries.
RTK executive director Liridon Canhasi has described the attack on his television crew as a "drastic violation of the freedom of expression". "The worst of it is that the attack was carried out by those (police officers) who have sworn and are paid to maintain order, and not to use violence," he said.
According to lawyer Tome Gashi, the grave incident of police brutality took place "as a result of a problem related to parking the vehicle". He said Behxhet Begu, head of the television crew, had suffered bodily injuries as result of police violence against him.
Gashi told Koha Ditore that the police have decided to hold the RTK crew in detention for 72 hours, and that reporter Behxhet Begu has already been transferred to Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica] prison. He also said that the police have confiscated the RTK crew's cameras, and have refused to show the filmed material in his presence and that of ShPK seniors. Gashi explained that the police have decided to hold the three RTK employees in detention under "attack on police" charges.
Kosova Police Service spokesperson Refki Morina has also confirmed this. He said the three members of the RTK crew and their companion will spend the next 72 hours in detention. "After viewing the scene of the incident, and after taking the statements of both parties involved, the public prosecutor ruled that the three RTK crew members and their companion are given 72 hours detention each," Morina said.
He rejected the RTK reporter's statement that it was the police that had started the argument and that police officers had used violence against the RTK team. "Initially, the police asked them to remove their vehicle, which had been parked in a prohibited area, and only after the RTK team refused to remove the vehicle and insulted the police did the police officer send them to the police station," he said. He added that the case had been passed on to the prosecution, and it remains to be seen how the whole story will end.
[Box] AGPK calls for protests in front of police headquarters in Prishtina and regional police stations
The Association of Professional Journalists of Kosova (AGPK) has decided to invite all Kosova journalists to a protest in front of the police headquarters in Prishtina and regional police stations today (Thursday, 31 March) at 1100 hours [0900 gmt] if the police do not immediately release the RTK employees and if the police officers involved in the incident with the RTK crew are not suspended from duty.
The AGKP has likewise invited all editorial staff of all media outlets, journalist associations of Kosova, trade unions and reporters' clubs from all over Kosova to protest in front of the regional police stations starting from 1100 hours today until the Kosova Police Service offers official confirmation that the RTK employees have been released and the police officers involved in the incident are suspended.
Source: Koha Ditore, Pristina, in Albanian 31 Mar 05 p 4
Text of unattributed report entitled "ShPK members attack RTK crew, detain them for 72 hours" published by the Kosovo Albanian newspaper Koha Ditore on 31 March
Prishtina [Pristina], 30 March: Parking a vehicle in the wrong place has cost a crew of the Kosova [Kosovo] Radio Television [RTK] "dearly". The arguments between the RTK crew and the Kosova Police Service [ShPK] members in an effort to explain the situation ended in violence against RTK reporter Behxhet Begu. Though quite seriously injured, Begu and other members of the RTK crew - the cameraman and driver - ended up in the police station in Vushtrri [Vucitrn]. The police have confirmed that physical violence was used against the RTK crew, and Behxhet Begu has sustained slight injuries.
RTK executive director Liridon Canhasi has described the attack on his television crew as a "drastic violation of the freedom of expression". "The worst of it is that the attack was carried out by those (police officers) who have sworn and are paid to maintain order, and not to use violence," he said.
According to lawyer Tome Gashi, the grave incident of police brutality took place "as a result of a problem related to parking the vehicle". He said Behxhet Begu, head of the television crew, had suffered bodily injuries as result of police violence against him.
Gashi told Koha Ditore that the police have decided to hold the RTK crew in detention for 72 hours, and that reporter Behxhet Begu has already been transferred to Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica] prison. He also said that the police have confiscated the RTK crew's cameras, and have refused to show the filmed material in his presence and that of ShPK seniors. Gashi explained that the police have decided to hold the three RTK employees in detention under "attack on police" charges.
Kosova Police Service spokesperson Refki Morina has also confirmed this. He said the three members of the RTK crew and their companion will spend the next 72 hours in detention. "After viewing the scene of the incident, and after taking the statements of both parties involved, the public prosecutor ruled that the three RTK crew members and their companion are given 72 hours detention each," Morina said.
He rejected the RTK reporter's statement that it was the police that had started the argument and that police officers had used violence against the RTK team. "Initially, the police asked them to remove their vehicle, which had been parked in a prohibited area, and only after the RTK team refused to remove the vehicle and insulted the police did the police officer send them to the police station," he said. He added that the case had been passed on to the prosecution, and it remains to be seen how the whole story will end.
[Box] AGPK calls for protests in front of police headquarters in Prishtina and regional police stations
The Association of Professional Journalists of Kosova (AGPK) has decided to invite all Kosova journalists to a protest in front of the police headquarters in Prishtina and regional police stations today (Thursday, 31 March) at 1100 hours [0900 gmt] if the police do not immediately release the RTK employees and if the police officers involved in the incident with the RTK crew are not suspended from duty.
The AGKP has likewise invited all editorial staff of all media outlets, journalist associations of Kosova, trade unions and reporters' clubs from all over Kosova to protest in front of the regional police stations starting from 1100 hours today until the Kosova Police Service offers official confirmation that the RTK employees have been released and the police officers involved in the incident are suspended.
Source: Koha Ditore, Pristina, in Albanian 31 Mar 05 p 4
Serbia returns remains of 43 ethnic Albanians killed in Kosovo war - AP
By GARENTINA KRAJA
Associated Press Writer
408 words
31 March 2005
09:19 am
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2005. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
MERDARE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Serbian authorities on Thursday returned the bodies of 43 ethnic Albanians who were killed in the war in Kosovo and buried in a mass grave in Serbia.
The bodies, which were exhumed from a grave on the grounds of a police training center just outside Belgrade, were handed over to U.N. officials in the border area of Merdare, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the provincial capital, Pristina.
Dozens of relatives and friends of people missing since the war filed past white body bags, some laying flowers and weeping.
Among them was Xhafer Veliu, 50, from a central Kosovo village. He hopes one day to learn the fate of his 18-year old son, one of the thousands still listed as missing and presumed dead.
"There's no pressure being put on Serbia to tell us where our loved ones are," he said, clutching a single flower.
About 836 bodies presumed to be those of ethnic Albanians killed during Kosovo's 1998-99 war and removed from the province in an apparent cover-up attempt by Yugoslav forces have been found in several mass graves in Serbia.
The bodies were exhumed after the 2000 ouster of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Thursday's transfer brought the number of bodies returned to Kosovo to 441, said Valerie Brasey of the U.N.-run office for missing persons and forensics.
The relatives of the missing have repeatedly demanded that all the bodies be returned immediately.
The remains of those repatriated Thursday will be taken to a U.N.-run laboratory in the province to undergo forensic inspection and be identified before they are returned to the families for burial.
Earlier this month, Serbian and Kosovo officials resumed talks aimed at establishing the fate of ethnic Albanians, Serbs and others who vanished during the war -- one of the most sensitive and emotionally charged issues between the two former foes.
The two sides signed a framework document and agreed to accept the Red Cross list of 2,960 still missing as their figure of reference. The officials agreed to meet again on June 9 in Pristina.
Kosovo's war claimed an estimated 10,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians. The conflict ended after NATO launched air strikes to halt the crackdown of Milosevic's troops on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Associated Press Writer
408 words
31 March 2005
09:19 am
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2005. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
MERDARE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Serbian authorities on Thursday returned the bodies of 43 ethnic Albanians who were killed in the war in Kosovo and buried in a mass grave in Serbia.
The bodies, which were exhumed from a grave on the grounds of a police training center just outside Belgrade, were handed over to U.N. officials in the border area of Merdare, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the provincial capital, Pristina.
Dozens of relatives and friends of people missing since the war filed past white body bags, some laying flowers and weeping.
Among them was Xhafer Veliu, 50, from a central Kosovo village. He hopes one day to learn the fate of his 18-year old son, one of the thousands still listed as missing and presumed dead.
"There's no pressure being put on Serbia to tell us where our loved ones are," he said, clutching a single flower.
About 836 bodies presumed to be those of ethnic Albanians killed during Kosovo's 1998-99 war and removed from the province in an apparent cover-up attempt by Yugoslav forces have been found in several mass graves in Serbia.
The bodies were exhumed after the 2000 ouster of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Thursday's transfer brought the number of bodies returned to Kosovo to 441, said Valerie Brasey of the U.N.-run office for missing persons and forensics.
The relatives of the missing have repeatedly demanded that all the bodies be returned immediately.
The remains of those repatriated Thursday will be taken to a U.N.-run laboratory in the province to undergo forensic inspection and be identified before they are returned to the families for burial.
Earlier this month, Serbian and Kosovo officials resumed talks aimed at establishing the fate of ethnic Albanians, Serbs and others who vanished during the war -- one of the most sensitive and emotionally charged issues between the two former foes.
The two sides signed a framework document and agreed to accept the Red Cross list of 2,960 still missing as their figure of reference. The officials agreed to meet again on June 9 in Pristina.
Kosovo's war claimed an estimated 10,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians. The conflict ended after NATO launched air strikes to halt the crackdown of Milosevic's troops on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Kosovo's Negotiating team in April? (Express)
Express reports on the front page that by the end of April a group that will handle the issue of Kosovo’s status is expected to be formed. According to the paper, the group will include members from various political parties and will be voted by the Kosovo Assembly.
‘I have voiced my concept – so that we can be joined together come the end of April. This is my personal opinion, but a consensus must be reached between partners in the government and the opposition. And the Assembly must decide on these issues,’ Kosovo Assembly Speaker Nexhat Daci told the paper.
Daci said he has promised international representatives that Kosovars would not disappoint them and would not be divided as in Rambouillet. ‘My opinion is to create an institutional unity and to agree for all issues. I believe that such a formula will be found. I say with great responsibility that Kosovo and Kosovars are not a property of the government or opposition,’ he added.
The paper reports that even the opposition is supporting the idea of appointing a negotiating team by the end of April. The Kosovo Democratic Party (PDK) thinks it is best to appoint the group as soon as possible. ‘It is certainly good for this to happen as soon as possible. Otherwise, in case of delays, Kosovo will face realities and political facts that wouldn’t be created by Kosovars,’ said PDK deputy leader Enver Hoxhaj.
‘The Kosovo Assembly reflects the unity of Kosovo citizens and is the only forum that should shape this mechanism or council. But I also think that this team should also include respected people from outside institutions,’ said Hoxhaj, adding that Kosovo Albanians should create without any delays a political and united platform for the issue of status.
‘I have voiced my concept – so that we can be joined together come the end of April. This is my personal opinion, but a consensus must be reached between partners in the government and the opposition. And the Assembly must decide on these issues,’ Kosovo Assembly Speaker Nexhat Daci told the paper.
Daci said he has promised international representatives that Kosovars would not disappoint them and would not be divided as in Rambouillet. ‘My opinion is to create an institutional unity and to agree for all issues. I believe that such a formula will be found. I say with great responsibility that Kosovo and Kosovars are not a property of the government or opposition,’ he added.
The paper reports that even the opposition is supporting the idea of appointing a negotiating team by the end of April. The Kosovo Democratic Party (PDK) thinks it is best to appoint the group as soon as possible. ‘It is certainly good for this to happen as soon as possible. Otherwise, in case of delays, Kosovo will face realities and political facts that wouldn’t be created by Kosovars,’ said PDK deputy leader Enver Hoxhaj.
‘The Kosovo Assembly reflects the unity of Kosovo citizens and is the only forum that should shape this mechanism or council. But I also think that this team should also include respected people from outside institutions,’ said Hoxhaj, adding that Kosovo Albanians should create without any delays a political and united platform for the issue of status.
Work done on clarifying roles before start of debate on Kosovo status - KOHA DITORE
Koha Ditore carries a report on possible developments before the addressing of Kosovo’s status. According to the paper, there is still a possibility that Jessen-Petersen leaves Kosovo and Kai Eide is appointed special envoy for the assessment of standards implementation and that a high-profile politician like Marti Ahtisaari or Karl Bildt could be appointed special envoy for the issue of status. ‘The international community is now working on clarifying the roles before the start of the debate on Kosovo’s status,’ the paper added.
Koha Ditore notes that even though UNMIK in Kosovo tries to leave the impression that Jessen-Petersen doesn’t plan to leave Kosovo, the fact that he has accepted the nomination by his government for the post of UNHCR chief shows that he will leave Kosovo if he is appointed to this post. If Jessen-Petersen didn’t want to leave Kosovo he would have refused the nomination in the first place.
At the same time, diplomats that claim that the SRSG is doing an excellent job in Kosovo also say that the process of appointing a new UNHCR chief can last at least until mid summer and that after an eventual appointment the new commissioner would start work in autumn. Under such circumstances, it could happen that Jessen-Petersen would leave Kosovo in autumn.
Norwegian Ambassador to NATO, Kai Eide has refuted information that he is interested to replace Jessen-Petersen at the helm of UNMIK, but officials in Brussels claim he is a serious candidate for another important post in Kosovo.
The same diplomats said that sometime around the end of May, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is expected to appoint a special envoy for the comprehensive review of standards implementation and Eide is still the main candidate for this post.
Koha Ditore also notes that in case of a positive review of standards implementation, the UN will also appoint a special envoy to prepare negotiations on Kosovo’s status. Unnamed diplomatic sources in Brussels told the paper that this should be a high-profile diplomat, a former prime minister. Former Finnish President Marti Ahtisaari and former Swedish Prime Minister Karl Bildt are among the names mentioned for this post.
Although US officials have said nothing about this matter so far, diplomatic circles in Brussels told the paper that Washington could be expected to appoint its special envoy for the status of Kosovo. This was even recently reported by The Washington Post.
According to EU and NATO diplomats, Washington would appoint a special envoy for the phase of negotiations to prove to Prishtina and Belgrade that the issue of Kosovo’s status is a high priority. ‘If a US special envoy is appointed for Kosovo, he could act as deputy to the UN special envoy on the issue of status,’ said diplomats in Brussels.
‘No one can predict what will happen after the start of the debate on Kosovo’s status. Although the whole process will be formally led by the United Nations, it will be coordinated through the Contact Group. As far as the final status is concerned, there is a growing agreement that for the time being conditional independence seems like the most realistic solution,’ the paper concluded.
Koha Ditore notes that even though UNMIK in Kosovo tries to leave the impression that Jessen-Petersen doesn’t plan to leave Kosovo, the fact that he has accepted the nomination by his government for the post of UNHCR chief shows that he will leave Kosovo if he is appointed to this post. If Jessen-Petersen didn’t want to leave Kosovo he would have refused the nomination in the first place.
At the same time, diplomats that claim that the SRSG is doing an excellent job in Kosovo also say that the process of appointing a new UNHCR chief can last at least until mid summer and that after an eventual appointment the new commissioner would start work in autumn. Under such circumstances, it could happen that Jessen-Petersen would leave Kosovo in autumn.
Norwegian Ambassador to NATO, Kai Eide has refuted information that he is interested to replace Jessen-Petersen at the helm of UNMIK, but officials in Brussels claim he is a serious candidate for another important post in Kosovo.
The same diplomats said that sometime around the end of May, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is expected to appoint a special envoy for the comprehensive review of standards implementation and Eide is still the main candidate for this post.
Koha Ditore also notes that in case of a positive review of standards implementation, the UN will also appoint a special envoy to prepare negotiations on Kosovo’s status. Unnamed diplomatic sources in Brussels told the paper that this should be a high-profile diplomat, a former prime minister. Former Finnish President Marti Ahtisaari and former Swedish Prime Minister Karl Bildt are among the names mentioned for this post.
Although US officials have said nothing about this matter so far, diplomatic circles in Brussels told the paper that Washington could be expected to appoint its special envoy for the status of Kosovo. This was even recently reported by The Washington Post.
According to EU and NATO diplomats, Washington would appoint a special envoy for the phase of negotiations to prove to Prishtina and Belgrade that the issue of Kosovo’s status is a high priority. ‘If a US special envoy is appointed for Kosovo, he could act as deputy to the UN special envoy on the issue of status,’ said diplomats in Brussels.
‘No one can predict what will happen after the start of the debate on Kosovo’s status. Although the whole process will be formally led by the United Nations, it will be coordinated through the Contact Group. As far as the final status is concerned, there is a growing agreement that for the time being conditional independence seems like the most realistic solution,’ the paper concluded.
Balkans urged to curb trafficking - BBC
By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva
France has tightened up controls at Calais
Countries in South-East Europe are failing to take effective measures against people trafficking, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) says.
A Unicef report says that while countries in the region have strict anti-trafficking laws they do not tackle the root causes of the problem.
Unicef found that young people at risk often did not know how to protect themselves from traffickers.
Few knew that traffickers were often friends or even family members.
The report looked at trafficking in Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and Serbia-Montenegro.
No one knows exactly how many people fall victim to traffickers - it is a secretive and complex business.
But Unicef does know what kind of people are trafficked: young women between the ages of 15 and 17 are sold for sexual exploitation; children under 13 are trafficked for forced labour and begging.
Children ill-informed
Many countries in South-East Europe have harsh laws against trafficking, but they focus on preventing illegal migration or cracking down on prostitution and organised crime.
What is missing, Unicef says, are child-focused strategies to prevent trafficking in the long term.
Children surveyed in Montenegro, for example, suggested that not walking alone at night might protect them.
In Romania, trafficked children returning from European Union countries are simply sent back to their families by the police, without involving the child protection agency and without investigating the situation of the family concerned.
But there are some success stories. Moldova, Europe's poorest country, has set up community services for abused children and introduced family and life-skill classes for those most at risk.
Education and awareness-raising are, Unicef says, the strategies most likely to prevent trafficking in the long-term. Repressive laws alone will not work.
BBC News, Geneva
France has tightened up controls at Calais
Countries in South-East Europe are failing to take effective measures against people trafficking, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) says.
A Unicef report says that while countries in the region have strict anti-trafficking laws they do not tackle the root causes of the problem.
Unicef found that young people at risk often did not know how to protect themselves from traffickers.
Few knew that traffickers were often friends or even family members.
The report looked at trafficking in Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and Serbia-Montenegro.
No one knows exactly how many people fall victim to traffickers - it is a secretive and complex business.
But Unicef does know what kind of people are trafficked: young women between the ages of 15 and 17 are sold for sexual exploitation; children under 13 are trafficked for forced labour and begging.
Children ill-informed
Many countries in South-East Europe have harsh laws against trafficking, but they focus on preventing illegal migration or cracking down on prostitution and organised crime.
What is missing, Unicef says, are child-focused strategies to prevent trafficking in the long term.
Children surveyed in Montenegro, for example, suggested that not walking alone at night might protect them.
In Romania, trafficked children returning from European Union countries are simply sent back to their families by the police, without involving the child protection agency and without investigating the situation of the family concerned.
But there are some success stories. Moldova, Europe's poorest country, has set up community services for abused children and introduced family and life-skill classes for those most at risk.
Education and awareness-raising are, Unicef says, the strategies most likely to prevent trafficking in the long-term. Repressive laws alone will not work.
Kfor rejects Serbian president's request for meeting of army chiefs
(c) 2005 The British Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Excerpt from report by Kosovo Albanian television KohaVision TV on 30 March
[Announcer] There will be no special meeting between the Kfor [NATO-led Kosovo Force] commander and the chief of the Serbia-Montenegro Army, a Kfor spokesman said in reply to Serbian President Boris Tadic's request for an urgent meeting to obtain an explanation for the Kosovo Protection Corps [TMK] exercise in Vushtrri [Vucitern], which he regarded as unacceptable.
[Reporter] The request by Serbian President Boris Tadic for an urgent and special meeting between the Serbia-Montenegro Army chief and Kfor commander will not be met. Kfor spokesperson Col Yves Kermorvant said there was no reason for a special meeting with the Serbia-Montenegro army officials. The answer was very short and clear.
[Col Yves Kermorvant speaking in English throughout with superimposed Albanian translation] Meeting? No! There is no reason for a special meeting between Kfor Commander Yves de Kermabon and the commander of the Serbia-Montenegro Army. The TMK is a civilian, emergency organization. It has no weapons, and it is not a force engaged in military training.
[Reporter] The statement by the Kfor spokesperson follows a request from Serbian President Boris Tadic who, during the UNMIK [United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief's visit to Belgrade on Monday [28 March], had requested an urgent meeting of the Kfor commander and Serbia-Montenegro Army chief. Tadic had declared that such a meeting should be held as soon as possible in order to present Belgrade's dissatisfaction with the TMK training that began several days ago in Vushtrri. On this occasion he said that the TMK training was totally unacceptable. He even said that it posed a threat to the security of the region. Kfor officials have a diametrically opposed opinion.
[Col Yves Kermorvant] The situation is calm and stable.
[Passage omitted]
Source: KohaVision TV, Pristina, in Albanian 1700 gmt 30 Mar 05
Excerpt from report by Kosovo Albanian television KohaVision TV on 30 March
[Announcer] There will be no special meeting between the Kfor [NATO-led Kosovo Force] commander and the chief of the Serbia-Montenegro Army, a Kfor spokesman said in reply to Serbian President Boris Tadic's request for an urgent meeting to obtain an explanation for the Kosovo Protection Corps [TMK] exercise in Vushtrri [Vucitern], which he regarded as unacceptable.
[Reporter] The request by Serbian President Boris Tadic for an urgent and special meeting between the Serbia-Montenegro Army chief and Kfor commander will not be met. Kfor spokesperson Col Yves Kermorvant said there was no reason for a special meeting with the Serbia-Montenegro army officials. The answer was very short and clear.
[Col Yves Kermorvant speaking in English throughout with superimposed Albanian translation] Meeting? No! There is no reason for a special meeting between Kfor Commander Yves de Kermabon and the commander of the Serbia-Montenegro Army. The TMK is a civilian, emergency organization. It has no weapons, and it is not a force engaged in military training.
[Reporter] The statement by the Kfor spokesperson follows a request from Serbian President Boris Tadic who, during the UNMIK [United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief's visit to Belgrade on Monday [28 March], had requested an urgent meeting of the Kfor commander and Serbia-Montenegro Army chief. Tadic had declared that such a meeting should be held as soon as possible in order to present Belgrade's dissatisfaction with the TMK training that began several days ago in Vushtrri. On this occasion he said that the TMK training was totally unacceptable. He even said that it posed a threat to the security of the region. Kfor officials have a diametrically opposed opinion.
[Col Yves Kermorvant] The situation is calm and stable.
[Passage omitted]
Source: KohaVision TV, Pristina, in Albanian 1700 gmt 30 Mar 05
Serbia to return remains of 43 ethnic Albanians killed in Kosovo war - AP
(c) 2005. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Serbian authorities on Thursday were to return the bodies of 43 ethnic Albanians killed in the war in Kosovo, the government said.
The bodies, which were exhumed from mass graves, were to be handed over to authorities in Kosovo in the border area of Merdare, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the provincial capital, Pristina, the government's commission on missing people said in a statement.
About 836 bodies presumed to be those of ethnic Albanians killed during Kosovo's 1998-99 war and removed from the province in an apparent cover-up attempt by Yugoslav forces have been found in several mass graves in Serbia.
The bodies were exhumed after the 2000 ouster of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, but only 378 have been returned to their families in Kosovo so far, according to the office for missing persons and forensics.
The relatives of the missing have repeatedly demanded that all the bodies be returned immediately.
Earlier this month, Serbian and Kosovo officials resumed talks aimed at establishing the fate of ethnic Albanians, Serbs and others who vanished during the war -- one of the most sensitive and emotionally charged issues between the two former foes.
The two sides signed a framework document and agreed to accept the Red Cross list of 2,960 still missing as their figure of reference. The officials agreed to meet again on June 9 in Pristina.
Kosovo's war left an estimated 10,000 people killed, mostly ethnic Albanians. The conflict ended after NATO launched air strikes to halt the crackdown of Milosevic's troops on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Serbian authorities on Thursday were to return the bodies of 43 ethnic Albanians killed in the war in Kosovo, the government said.
The bodies, which were exhumed from mass graves, were to be handed over to authorities in Kosovo in the border area of Merdare, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the provincial capital, Pristina, the government's commission on missing people said in a statement.
About 836 bodies presumed to be those of ethnic Albanians killed during Kosovo's 1998-99 war and removed from the province in an apparent cover-up attempt by Yugoslav forces have been found in several mass graves in Serbia.
The bodies were exhumed after the 2000 ouster of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, but only 378 have been returned to their families in Kosovo so far, according to the office for missing persons and forensics.
The relatives of the missing have repeatedly demanded that all the bodies be returned immediately.
Earlier this month, Serbian and Kosovo officials resumed talks aimed at establishing the fate of ethnic Albanians, Serbs and others who vanished during the war -- one of the most sensitive and emotionally charged issues between the two former foes.
The two sides signed a framework document and agreed to accept the Red Cross list of 2,960 still missing as their figure of reference. The officials agreed to meet again on June 9 in Pristina.
Kosovo's war left an estimated 10,000 people killed, mostly ethnic Albanians. The conflict ended after NATO launched air strikes to halt the crackdown of Milosevic's troops on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
New Kosovo premier says ready to visit Belgrade
Text of report by Kosovo Albanian television KohaVision TV on 29 March
[Announcer] Good evening, this is the main KohaVision news bulletin. After the first meeting of the new government, Kosova [Kosovo] Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi has said that he is ready to visit Belgrade, but not before Tirana. Kosumi also responded to opposition criticism.
[Reporter] Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi expressed his readiness to visit the Serbian capital. According to him, this visit could take place during his mandate as prime minister.
[Bajram Kosumi] After the war in Kosova, in the first meeting I had with a diplomat, whose name I will not disclose - you may take into account the situation after the war and the nervousness - I said that while in politics I wish to see the day when I sit at the same table with representatives of the Serbian government where on one side there would be a Serbian flag and on the other the Kosova flag.
[Reporter] Kosumi reiterated that his first visit abroad would be Tirana. Speaking about opposition accusations that some ministers were involved in criminal activities that were made public several days ago, Kosumi said:
[Kosumi] While I was listening to the statements and declarations of the assembly deputies, all the time in my mind I had one request - let us do our job and then you will see how we do our job.
[Reporter] After the first meeting of the new government the premier thanked the ministers for their work over the last four months. He also thanked municipal mayors who, according to him, did a great job in fulfilling the Standards.
[Kosumi] We really saw a unique and successful teamwork, an example of leadership, and I wish to publicly thank all the Kosova municipal mayors. They did an excellent job in recent weeks. I thank the minister of local government, Mr Lutfi Haziri, and the Association of Municipalities that was also involved in this process.
Source: KohaVision TV, Pristina, in Albanian 1800 gmt 29 Mar 05
[Announcer] Good evening, this is the main KohaVision news bulletin. After the first meeting of the new government, Kosova [Kosovo] Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi has said that he is ready to visit Belgrade, but not before Tirana. Kosumi also responded to opposition criticism.
[Reporter] Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi expressed his readiness to visit the Serbian capital. According to him, this visit could take place during his mandate as prime minister.
[Bajram Kosumi] After the war in Kosova, in the first meeting I had with a diplomat, whose name I will not disclose - you may take into account the situation after the war and the nervousness - I said that while in politics I wish to see the day when I sit at the same table with representatives of the Serbian government where on one side there would be a Serbian flag and on the other the Kosova flag.
[Reporter] Kosumi reiterated that his first visit abroad would be Tirana. Speaking about opposition accusations that some ministers were involved in criminal activities that were made public several days ago, Kosumi said:
[Kosumi] While I was listening to the statements and declarations of the assembly deputies, all the time in my mind I had one request - let us do our job and then you will see how we do our job.
[Reporter] After the first meeting of the new government the premier thanked the ministers for their work over the last four months. He also thanked municipal mayors who, according to him, did a great job in fulfilling the Standards.
[Kosumi] We really saw a unique and successful teamwork, an example of leadership, and I wish to publicly thank all the Kosova municipal mayors. They did an excellent job in recent weeks. I thank the minister of local government, Mr Lutfi Haziri, and the Association of Municipalities that was also involved in this process.
Source: KohaVision TV, Pristina, in Albanian 1800 gmt 29 Mar 05
OHR: AMBASSADOR WNENDT ENDS MANDATE IN BiH TO HEAD OSCE MISSION IN KOSOVO
SARAJEVO, March 30 (FENA) - The Senior Deputy High Representative, Ambassador Werner Wnendt, arrived in BiH in August 2003 and will leave Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of April. Ambassador Wnendt will take up the position as Head of the OSCE Mission to Kosovo. His successor will be appointed shortly, said OHR.
The High Representative thanks Ambassador Wnendt for the contribution and dedication he has brought to a broad range of responsibilities, including refugee return and institution-building, ieducation reform and the reorganization of the BiH armed and intelligence forces.
As Special Envoy to Mostar upon enacting of the Mostar Statute Ambassador Wnendt played a key role in the restructuring of the City of Mostar.
”I deeply appreciate Ambassador Wnendt's immense dedication and commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina and reform agenda. Although I am sad to see him leave, I wish him all the best at his capacity of OSCE Head of Mission in Kosovo,'' said the High Representative.
The High Representative thanks Ambassador Wnendt for the contribution and dedication he has brought to a broad range of responsibilities, including refugee return and institution-building, ieducation reform and the reorganization of the BiH armed and intelligence forces.
As Special Envoy to Mostar upon enacting of the Mostar Statute Ambassador Wnendt played a key role in the restructuring of the City of Mostar.
”I deeply appreciate Ambassador Wnendt's immense dedication and commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina and reform agenda. Although I am sad to see him leave, I wish him all the best at his capacity of OSCE Head of Mission in Kosovo,'' said the High Representative.
SRSG expresses confidence on achieving major progress in returns soon during his visit to IDP centres in Serbia
PRISTINA – SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen today visited two IDP centres in Bujanovac, Serbia. He listened to the individual and collective problems and grievances of displaced persons at the Motel Camping collective centre with some 70 Kosovo Serb residents, and Camp Salvatore, a settlement for 240 persons from 49 Roma families originating from Gjilan/Gnjilane.
Encouraged by his interactions with the IDPs, the SRSG expressed confidence that “a major step forward could be achieved in return of displaced persons in the next six months.”
“I came here today because the return of the IDPs is one of the top priorities in implementation of standards in Kosovo, and is one of my top priorities. I came here first and foremost to listen to the displaced persons and I had the opportunity to listen to quite a few,” the SRSG said, recalling his long experience of 25 years working with refugees that helps him better understand their plight.
“Some of the displaced persons were very angry and I understand their anger,” the SRSG told journalists at the end of his trip, “I am also angry, because it is a shame for all of us that, six years after the end of the war in Kosovo, people still have to live in those kind of conditions.”
“Return is first and foremost a matter of human beings. Return is first and foremost a responsibility on behalf of all of us towards the people we met this morning that we don’t leave them in those kind of conditions for much longer,” Mr Jessen-Petersen said.
Refering to his visit to Belgrade earlier this week, the SRSG said that he appealed to leaders in Belgrade to be “more careful and more responsible with their statements on the security situation in Kosovo”. At the same time he stressed, “In Kosovo we have to work first of all to improve the freedom of movement in areas where that is still a problem.”
The SRSG observed that very few of the displaced persons he met today expressed security concerns as an obstacle to their return. “And they are right, because the security situation has improved considerably in Kosovo in the past 12 months,” he said. However, noting that all of them talked about problems of property and housing, the SRSG said, “It is clear to me that we have to work much, much harder on resolving the very complex and difficult issues linked to property,” adding that he saw “no major reason why we cannot promote the return of many of the displaced persons today”.
The SRSG welcomed the readiness of Belgrade to start the working group for dialogue on returns and, in the context of promoting returns, he said, “Most importantly, all actors must work together: the institutions in Kosovo; the municipal authorities in Kosovo; the authorities in Belgrade; the international organizations – UNMIK, UNHCR, UNDP – and the internally displaced persons.”
Encouraged by his interactions with the IDPs, the SRSG expressed confidence that “a major step forward could be achieved in return of displaced persons in the next six months.”
“I came here today because the return of the IDPs is one of the top priorities in implementation of standards in Kosovo, and is one of my top priorities. I came here first and foremost to listen to the displaced persons and I had the opportunity to listen to quite a few,” the SRSG said, recalling his long experience of 25 years working with refugees that helps him better understand their plight.
“Some of the displaced persons were very angry and I understand their anger,” the SRSG told journalists at the end of his trip, “I am also angry, because it is a shame for all of us that, six years after the end of the war in Kosovo, people still have to live in those kind of conditions.”
“Return is first and foremost a matter of human beings. Return is first and foremost a responsibility on behalf of all of us towards the people we met this morning that we don’t leave them in those kind of conditions for much longer,” Mr Jessen-Petersen said.
Refering to his visit to Belgrade earlier this week, the SRSG said that he appealed to leaders in Belgrade to be “more careful and more responsible with their statements on the security situation in Kosovo”. At the same time he stressed, “In Kosovo we have to work first of all to improve the freedom of movement in areas where that is still a problem.”
The SRSG observed that very few of the displaced persons he met today expressed security concerns as an obstacle to their return. “And they are right, because the security situation has improved considerably in Kosovo in the past 12 months,” he said. However, noting that all of them talked about problems of property and housing, the SRSG said, “It is clear to me that we have to work much, much harder on resolving the very complex and difficult issues linked to property,” adding that he saw “no major reason why we cannot promote the return of many of the displaced persons today”.
The SRSG welcomed the readiness of Belgrade to start the working group for dialogue on returns and, in the context of promoting returns, he said, “Most importantly, all actors must work together: the institutions in Kosovo; the municipal authorities in Kosovo; the authorities in Belgrade; the international organizations – UNMIK, UNHCR, UNDP – and the internally displaced persons.”
Kosovo Albanians did not beat up Serb couple - UNMIK chief UPDATED
UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief Soeren Jessen-Petersen said today, in talks with displaced Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija, that it was not true that [ethnic] Albanians beat up the Vucic [elderly] married couple from the village of Crkolez near Istok.
While visiting Serbs housed in the collective centre near Bujanovac, Petersen said that this crime was not ethnically motivated and that it was "nearer home", although he did not want to explain what this meant.
He pointed out that whenever he met the displaced population from Kosovo accommodated in collective centres it was a shame.
"The fact that you have not been in your homes for six years is also a disgrace for Europe," Petersen said, adding that security in Kosovo was satisfactory and the only problem for Serbs was to do with property.
According to him, Albanians are aware that they have done some bad things to Serbs, as well as bad things being done to them, but now an environment for communal life has been created in Kosovo.
He called on Serbs, once they decide to return, to come back with "open hearts".
There are more than 100 Serbs housed in the Prolece Motel near Bujanovac and in talks with the UNMIK chief they pointed out the problems to do with property and security.
Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 0912 gmt 30 Mar 05
While visiting Serbs housed in the collective centre near Bujanovac, Petersen said that this crime was not ethnically motivated and that it was "nearer home", although he did not want to explain what this meant.
He pointed out that whenever he met the displaced population from Kosovo accommodated in collective centres it was a shame.
"The fact that you have not been in your homes for six years is also a disgrace for Europe," Petersen said, adding that security in Kosovo was satisfactory and the only problem for Serbs was to do with property.
According to him, Albanians are aware that they have done some bad things to Serbs, as well as bad things being done to them, but now an environment for communal life has been created in Kosovo.
He called on Serbs, once they decide to return, to come back with "open hearts".
There are more than 100 Serbs housed in the Prolece Motel near Bujanovac and in talks with the UNMIK chief they pointed out the problems to do with property and security.
Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 0912 gmt 30 Mar 05
Kosovo Protection Corps denies plans to hold military exercise
Members of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KZK) are not carrying out armed exercises near Vucitrn [northern Kosovo] and Serbian President Boris Tadic's statements are not true, Kfor [NATO-led Kosovo Corps] spokesman Ives de Kermabon said at a news conference in Pristina today.
"The KZK is a civilian organization and recruits of the Vucitrn school are currently undergoing training. They have not had and do not have weapons," the Kfor spokesman added.
Serbian President Boris Tadic said in a meeting with UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief Soeren Jessen-Petersen on Monday [28 March] that the holding of a Kosovo Protection Corps military exercise in the vicinity of Vucitrn would be absolutely unacceptable.
Tadic stressed that the holding of a military exercise would constitute "a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Constitutional Framework for Kosovo-Metohija, which established the KZK as a civilian organization".
Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1321 gmt 30 Mar 05
"The KZK is a civilian organization and recruits of the Vucitrn school are currently undergoing training. They have not had and do not have weapons," the Kfor spokesman added.
Serbian President Boris Tadic said in a meeting with UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief Soeren Jessen-Petersen on Monday [28 March] that the holding of a Kosovo Protection Corps military exercise in the vicinity of Vucitrn would be absolutely unacceptable.
Tadic stressed that the holding of a military exercise would constitute "a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Constitutional Framework for Kosovo-Metohija, which established the KZK as a civilian organization".
Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1321 gmt 30 Mar 05
Kai Eide says he doesn’t plan to take over helm of UNMIK
Several daily newspapers report that the Norwegian Ambassador to NATO, Kai Eide, has refuted information broadcast by Serbian media according to which he is a serious candidate to replace Søren Jessen-Petersen at the helm of UNMIK.
‘There is no truth in these articles and I have no idea how this was reported. Such speculation is completely inaccurate and untrue. I want to be honest and tell you that I have no intention of becoming SRSG in Kosovo,’ Eide was quoted as saying.
‘There is no truth in these articles and I have no idea how this was reported. Such speculation is completely inaccurate and untrue. I want to be honest and tell you that I have no intention of becoming SRSG in Kosovo,’ Eide was quoted as saying.
Fieschi doesn’t rule out option of independence
Express carries an interview with outgoing OSCE Head of Mission in Pristina Pascal Fieschi. Commenting on Kosovo’s future status and asked about the possibility of an independent country, Fieschi was quoted as saying, ‘Why not? It all depends on you, it depends from the citizens of Kosovo, how they behave, their policies and the standards. Nothing is automatic and nothing comes from the skies. Why not, even independence. No one rules out this possibility.’
KFOR and KPC refute Tadic’s statements
Epoka e Re reports on page four that KFOR and KPC have refuted a recent statement made by Serbian President Boris Tadic who claimed that KPC was performing out military exercises near Vushtrri.
‘I can tell you that there have been no exercises in the region of Vushtrri; there have been no armed exercises contrary to some inaccurate reports in the media’, said KFOR Information Chief Yves Kermovant.
‘I can tell you that there have been no exercises in the region of Vushtrri; there have been no armed exercises contrary to some inaccurate reports in the media’, said KFOR Information Chief Yves Kermovant.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Kosovo must be dealt with in broader European context: Zoellick
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AFP) - Talks about the future of Kosovo will have a greater chance of success if all European states take part and the Serbian province is treated as a future EU member, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said here. "The discussions over Kosovo's future status will be most successful if they take place within a broader European context and there is a recognition of a vision in future for these countries within the European space," Zoellick said in Slovenia at the start of a 14-nation tour of Europe.
"This is not easy because the EU has been moving through a rather extensive enlargement process. It's got a constitutional process and there are some people in other capitals in Europe that probably want to take a pause", Zoellick added.
Talks over Kosovo's final status are expected to take place later this year between the Albanian ethnic authorities and the Serbian representatives which were forced to leave the province under the UN administration after NATO's 1999 intervention.
The head of the UN mission in the province has suggested it could start in September.
Zoellick said 2005 will be a year during which "various standards will be reviewed and status discussions will take place" related to Kosovo.
"The future of Kosovo obviously depends on discussions with Serbia," he said.
"This is not easy because the EU has been moving through a rather extensive enlargement process. It's got a constitutional process and there are some people in other capitals in Europe that probably want to take a pause", Zoellick added.
Talks over Kosovo's final status are expected to take place later this year between the Albanian ethnic authorities and the Serbian representatives which were forced to leave the province under the UN administration after NATO's 1999 intervention.
The head of the UN mission in the province has suggested it could start in September.
Zoellick said 2005 will be a year during which "various standards will be reviewed and status discussions will take place" related to Kosovo.
"The future of Kosovo obviously depends on discussions with Serbia," he said.
Former Top Bosnian Serb Official to Surrender to Hague Court
By VOA News
29 March 2005
A former top Bosnian Serb police official has agreed to surrender to the United Nations war crimes tribunal on charges of having a role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic announced the surrender plans of Ljubomir Borovcanin Tuesday. Bosnian Serb officials say he will travel to The Hague on Friday.
Mr. Borovcanin was indicted for alleged complicity in genocide in the deaths of nearly eight thousand Muslim men and boys after Serb forces captured the U.N. enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995.
Meanwhile, officials in neighboring Serbia say war crimes suspect General Sreten Lukic underwent vascular surgery Tuesday, ahead of his expected transfer to the tribunal.
The Hague Court has indicted General Lukic and three other Serbian generals for alleged war crimes committed against Kosovo Albanians in 1999.
29 March 2005
A former top Bosnian Serb police official has agreed to surrender to the United Nations war crimes tribunal on charges of having a role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic announced the surrender plans of Ljubomir Borovcanin Tuesday. Bosnian Serb officials say he will travel to The Hague on Friday.
Mr. Borovcanin was indicted for alleged complicity in genocide in the deaths of nearly eight thousand Muslim men and boys after Serb forces captured the U.N. enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995.
Meanwhile, officials in neighboring Serbia say war crimes suspect General Sreten Lukic underwent vascular surgery Tuesday, ahead of his expected transfer to the tribunal.
The Hague Court has indicted General Lukic and three other Serbian generals for alleged war crimes committed against Kosovo Albanians in 1999.
UNMIK chief notes "change in climate" in Serbia-Kosovo relations
Jessen-Petersen told KosovaLive upon arrival at Prishtina airport that the official Belgrade has not yet given a clear signal for Kosova [Kosovo] Serbs to join the institutions, but he believes that this will happen in the coming weeks.
[KosovaLive] What did you agree with Serbia authorities?
[Jessen-Petersen] We agreed to continue the work of the group on missing persons. We also agreed to start the work with working groups on energy and on the return and now we have the chairman of this group from the EU. He is Jolly Dickinson. Whereas the UNHCR will chair the working group on the return. Serbia authorities also suggested that there should be talks on property issues as well. I think this is an important issue and we will consider it. We agreed to start with the dialogue on energy and on the return immediately and later on to see the issues related to property. President Tadic was very clear that he wants a direct dialogue with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) and we will convey his stance to Prishtina authorities.
On the issue of decentralization, I insisted on the stance that this is a Prishtina-driven process, but we need Serbs to be a part of it. Of course, Belgrade is welcome to send its advisers. And finally, I welcomed the fact that the memorandum of understanding for the reconstruction of churches was signed, even though there was some confusion.
[KosovaLive] When do you think a meeting between the PISG with President Tadic can take place?
[Jessen-Petersen] I think we have to talk now with PISG. I want to inform them as I usually do when I come back. I think that they are in favour of having such a dialogue. As for the direct dialogue with President Tadic, this must be discussed now with the PISG and they (PISG) decide on it. I think this is good thing and would help building the confidence and preparing Prishtina and Belgrade for the status talks.
[KosovaLive] According to you the climate in the relations between Prishtina and Belgrade has started to change.
[Jessen-Petersen] I think it has changed. We have seen encouraging signs. I think it has changed because Belgrade has understood that, as I said many times, the train is moving with or without Belgrade. And it seems they want to be part of it and I think this is a good thing.
Now, I expect that Belgrade encourage Kosovo Serbs to be part of the dialogue and to join PISG. But I did not get a clear signal there, because they are working in a new policy. I think that this is a matter of weeks. Tadic was again clear that he wants Kosovo Serbs to join the PISG.
[KosovaLive] What can Belgrade do to convince Kosova Serbs to join the PISG?
[Jessen-Petersen] I think that a clear signal must be that they either become part of the government or of the Assembly. As you know the PISG have reserved portfolios for them in the government, second they should take part in the working group for decentralization and there is lot of other issues as well. They have to participate and you know it, but I think that Belgrade is close to make a decision. It remained that they join policies and give clear signals.
[KosovaLive] Which is the main obstacle in giving clear signals?
[Jessen-Petersen] There are four, five or six main leaders that have to agree on it. I think that it is an issue of different politicians to come together and to agree on policies.
[KosovaLive] You have got the list of the international organizations who could facilitate the dialogue between Prishtina and Belgrade?
[Jessen-Petersen] We have ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], which is continuing the dialogue on missing persons. Then we have EU, which have confirmed to me in Brussels that they would lead the working group on energy, and Jolly Dickinson would chair it. The UNHCR have confirmed last week that they are ready to chair the working group for the return. We have asked from the UNHCR to assign a senior official and we would see other issues later on.
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 29 Mar 05
[KosovaLive] What did you agree with Serbia authorities?
[Jessen-Petersen] We agreed to continue the work of the group on missing persons. We also agreed to start the work with working groups on energy and on the return and now we have the chairman of this group from the EU. He is Jolly Dickinson. Whereas the UNHCR will chair the working group on the return. Serbia authorities also suggested that there should be talks on property issues as well. I think this is an important issue and we will consider it. We agreed to start with the dialogue on energy and on the return immediately and later on to see the issues related to property. President Tadic was very clear that he wants a direct dialogue with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) and we will convey his stance to Prishtina authorities.
On the issue of decentralization, I insisted on the stance that this is a Prishtina-driven process, but we need Serbs to be a part of it. Of course, Belgrade is welcome to send its advisers. And finally, I welcomed the fact that the memorandum of understanding for the reconstruction of churches was signed, even though there was some confusion.
[KosovaLive] When do you think a meeting between the PISG with President Tadic can take place?
[Jessen-Petersen] I think we have to talk now with PISG. I want to inform them as I usually do when I come back. I think that they are in favour of having such a dialogue. As for the direct dialogue with President Tadic, this must be discussed now with the PISG and they (PISG) decide on it. I think this is good thing and would help building the confidence and preparing Prishtina and Belgrade for the status talks.
[KosovaLive] According to you the climate in the relations between Prishtina and Belgrade has started to change.
[Jessen-Petersen] I think it has changed. We have seen encouraging signs. I think it has changed because Belgrade has understood that, as I said many times, the train is moving with or without Belgrade. And it seems they want to be part of it and I think this is a good thing.
Now, I expect that Belgrade encourage Kosovo Serbs to be part of the dialogue and to join PISG. But I did not get a clear signal there, because they are working in a new policy. I think that this is a matter of weeks. Tadic was again clear that he wants Kosovo Serbs to join the PISG.
[KosovaLive] What can Belgrade do to convince Kosova Serbs to join the PISG?
[Jessen-Petersen] I think that a clear signal must be that they either become part of the government or of the Assembly. As you know the PISG have reserved portfolios for them in the government, second they should take part in the working group for decentralization and there is lot of other issues as well. They have to participate and you know it, but I think that Belgrade is close to make a decision. It remained that they join policies and give clear signals.
[KosovaLive] Which is the main obstacle in giving clear signals?
[Jessen-Petersen] There are four, five or six main leaders that have to agree on it. I think that it is an issue of different politicians to come together and to agree on policies.
[KosovaLive] You have got the list of the international organizations who could facilitate the dialogue between Prishtina and Belgrade?
[Jessen-Petersen] We have ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], which is continuing the dialogue on missing persons. Then we have EU, which have confirmed to me in Brussels that they would lead the working group on energy, and Jolly Dickinson would chair it. The UNHCR have confirmed last week that they are ready to chair the working group for the return. We have asked from the UNHCR to assign a senior official and we would see other issues later on.
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 29 Mar 05
Zoellick, Slovenian Foreign Minister Discuss Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo - OSCE has "key role" to play in Kyrgyzstan, says deputy secretary
Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick and Slovenian Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel said they focused during their meeting in Ljubljana March 28 on Kyrgyzstan and Kosovo.
With Slovenia currently holding the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Rupel has played an active role in the events that have followed the disputed election in Kyrgyzstan. Zoellick said the OSCE has "a key role in terms of trying to bring the parties together within Kyrgyzstan as they sort of deal with the departure of the President and looking towards the new government and new elections."
The OSCE can also provide election assistance and monitoring and support for some police services, as well as help in the development of a free press, he added.
"The OSCE can also play a role among its 55 members in terms of making sure that key partners, particularly neighbors -- Kazakhstan, Russia, others -- have a comfort about the [democratic] process moving forward and support the process," said Zoellick.
Regarding Kosovo, Zoellick said 2005 is already scheduled to be a year in which there is a review of the achievement of democratic standards and also discussions of Kosovo's status.
"It's important to see how these [standards and status] fit together. So the future of Kosovo obviously depends on discussions with Serbia and also as Slovenia has discussed with its Croatian neighbors."
Zoellick added that he and Rupel agree the discussions will be most successful if they "take place within a broader European context, if there's a recognition of a vision and future for these countries within a European space."
Zoellick was United States Trade Representative from February 2001 until his Senate confirmation and swearing in as deputy secretary of state last month. He is visiting fourteen European capitals March 28-April 5 on his first trip in his new post.
Zoellick's itinerary includes stops in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain.
Following is the State Department transcript:
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C
March 29, 2005
Remarks With Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel of Slovenia
Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State
Ljubljana, Slovenia
March 29, 2005
MINISTER RUPEL: -- let us say southeastern of Europe. WE mostly spoke about Kosovo and Serbia-Montenegro. Slovenia is a member to the European Union, NATO is chairing the OSCE, and is thus in the center of very important events, international events, that have to do with security issues. Slovenia also participates in very important debates regarding the world or global stability peace, et cetera.
As I said, we talked about Kosovo, we talked about Kyrgyzstan. I informed Mr. Zoellick of our intentions regarding the traveling to Kyrgyzstan in the days to come. I also spoke about what has happened there, what the situation is there now and what was the role of Slovenia there during this time. We noted that the role of the OSCE is this case was of course beneficial and that it can also prove very important in the future. This is why our activities there will continue.
Concerning Kyrgyzstan, I already talked to some other colleagues, also to Mrs. Rice some days ago, and today we presented a situation currently existing there. We said that we intend to assist with the issues regarding the implementation or carrying out elections about legal and constitutional affairs with the so-called police assistance. We are speaking here about training of police forces, about settling the issues concerned with the operation and organization of police forces in Kyrgyzstan.
Regarding bilateral relations, I am certain that our guest will be able to say something more. We expressed, both me and Prime Minister our interest for comprehensive and increased cooperation between the United States and Slovenia in the economic area. We also expressed our interest to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, and we spoke about how it would be possible to cooperate in the coming months not only in the economic area but also in the area of countries around us in our area, meaning countries of Southeastern Europe, also Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq, et cetera.
I would like to reiterate, we are very much in favor of strengthening economic cooperation between the U.S. and Slovenia in the area of trading goods and services as well as in the area of foreign direct investment. So much from my part. Mr. Zoellick, the floor is yours.
DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK: Thank you very much, Minister. I think the Minister gave you a good sense of the topics that we had a chance to discuss, but I want to thank the Minister, as well as the Prime Minister for their graciousness in meeting with me today. The prime purpose of this visit was for me to come and be able to listen and to learn some of Slovenia's primary topics of interest.
This is the first visit of 14 different capitals that I'll be meeting with our NATO partners in over the next week or so, and it reflects President Bush and Secretary Rice's view that early in this second term of President Bush they wanted to come to Europe, talk about some of the issues on our agenda, and I on this trip am trying to visit the various capitals that they did not have a chance to visit yet. So we wanted in the early months of this term to be able to have an opportunity to hear in capitals of people's primary interests.
So as the Minister said, we had a chance to cover in particular Slovenia's leadership role in the OSCE. We talked about how this is particularly important given the events in Kyrgyzstan and I know the Minister is playing an active day by day if not hour by hour role in terms of trying to work with the other members of the OSCE and support the democratic process in Kyrgyzstan. But we also spent considerable time on the Balkans. And here as well I wanted to make sure I got the Minister's perspective on the events ahead because we think that 2005 will be a very important year for the process in the Balkans.
In general, as I expressed to both the Prime Minster and the Foreign Minister, we are delighted that Slovenia is a new member of both NATO and the European Union. As a member of both we see it as part of a larger transatlantic community. So whether the issues that we deal with are part of the transatlantic space or ones farther afield in Afghanistan, Iraq, even Sudan which we talked about, we want to make sure that we understand and fully appreciate the views of Slovenia. That was the main reason why I wanted to come here and to listen to those perspectives.
SLOVENE MFA SPOKESWOMAN MIRIAM MOZGAN: Unfortunately we are short with time so we'll only have time to answer two questions. Maybe Spela?
QUESTION: Spela Novak from Radio Slovenia.
I would have one question. Is your tour around Europe also intended to solve some trade disputes between the United States and the EU? Recently you also tackled a lot of issues about Boeing. So is this also one of the issues on your agenda?
DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK: Not really. Although I'm open to any topics that my colleagues may wish to raise with me. But I had the pleasure of serving as a Trade Minister for four years, now I'm back at our Foreign Ministry where I had served from '89 to '92. So the Minister and the Prime Minister did discuss some of the economic reforms and we had a chance to talk briefly about the fact that what I've been able to see take place in the global economy over the past four years gives me a particular perspective on the challenge that countries face, whether it be with their education system, their pension system, their tax system and others, to remain competitive. I got some opportunity to ask the Prime Minister about some of the plans for the new government in those dimensions for Slovenia. Obviously a big aspect is the steps that Slovenia is taking to meet the criteria for joining the euro in 2007. So I'm no longer the Trade Minister but I'm permitted to talk about the subject if people raise it with me.
QUESTION: Marija Novak from Reuters. I'll ask in Slovene.
What are your impressions with the events in Kyrgyzstan and do you expect that similar revolutions, if we call it that, could happen in some neighboring countries, former members of the Soviet Union? And what is your prediction regarding the future status of Kosovo? When and how do you think the decision will be reached on the status of Kosovo? Thank you.
DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK: As to your first question, I think what we've seen over the course of past months is an expression by people in very diverse parts of the world, whether it be Ukraine, whether it be Georgia, whether it be Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian elections, of a desire to be free and to participate in their own future with their government and take part in a process of self-determination. Lebanon as well, where you have people moving towards true independence.
There are certainly large changes afoot, but the process of change also requires careful attention by countries that want to try to support the process taking place peacefully. So in that context with your question on Kyrgyzstan, we think that there's a particular role for the OSCE to play. The Minister and I talked about aspects of that role.
First, we think there is a key role in terms of trying to bring the parties together within Kyrgyzstan as they sort of deal with the departure of the President and looking towards the new government and new elections. There is a role that can be played by the OSCE in election assistance and also election monitoring, work with the free press. The Minister also mentioned to support some of the police services. The OSCE can also play a role among its 55 members in terms of making sure that key partners, particularly neighbors -- Kazakhstan, Russia, others -- have a comfort about the process moving forward and support the process.
So I think all these need to be kept in the context of recognizing that the people of Kyrgyzstan want to determine their own future.
So we are absolutely delighted that Slovenia is in the chair of OSCE because this is a country that also wanted to determine its own future not many years ago and has done so very ably.
In the context of the Balkans, I think as both the Minister and I mentioned, 2005 is already scheduled to be a year where there are to be a review of various standards but also status discussions. It's important to see how these fit together. So the future of Kosovo obviously depends on discussions with Serbia and also as Slovenia has discussed with its Croatian neighbors.
I think we are in agreement, but I'll let the Minister speak for himself on this, that this will be most successful if these discussions take place within a broader European context, if there's a recognition of a vision and future for these countries within a European space.
This is not easy because the European Union has been moving through a rather extensive enlargement process. It's got a constitutional process. So there are some people in other capitals in Europe that probably want to take a pause, but history doesn't permit a pause, and that's one reason why I wanted to come here, because I wanted to get a sense from the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister about their perspective on these issues so we could work together with them and with other European partners during the course of 2005.
MS. MOZGAN: Thank you.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
With Slovenia currently holding the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Rupel has played an active role in the events that have followed the disputed election in Kyrgyzstan. Zoellick said the OSCE has "a key role in terms of trying to bring the parties together within Kyrgyzstan as they sort of deal with the departure of the President and looking towards the new government and new elections."
The OSCE can also provide election assistance and monitoring and support for some police services, as well as help in the development of a free press, he added.
"The OSCE can also play a role among its 55 members in terms of making sure that key partners, particularly neighbors -- Kazakhstan, Russia, others -- have a comfort about the [democratic] process moving forward and support the process," said Zoellick.
Regarding Kosovo, Zoellick said 2005 is already scheduled to be a year in which there is a review of the achievement of democratic standards and also discussions of Kosovo's status.
"It's important to see how these [standards and status] fit together. So the future of Kosovo obviously depends on discussions with Serbia and also as Slovenia has discussed with its Croatian neighbors."
Zoellick added that he and Rupel agree the discussions will be most successful if they "take place within a broader European context, if there's a recognition of a vision and future for these countries within a European space."
Zoellick was United States Trade Representative from February 2001 until his Senate confirmation and swearing in as deputy secretary of state last month. He is visiting fourteen European capitals March 28-April 5 on his first trip in his new post.
Zoellick's itinerary includes stops in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain.
Following is the State Department transcript:
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C
March 29, 2005
Remarks With Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel of Slovenia
Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State
Ljubljana, Slovenia
March 29, 2005
MINISTER RUPEL: -- let us say southeastern of Europe. WE mostly spoke about Kosovo and Serbia-Montenegro. Slovenia is a member to the European Union, NATO is chairing the OSCE, and is thus in the center of very important events, international events, that have to do with security issues. Slovenia also participates in very important debates regarding the world or global stability peace, et cetera.
As I said, we talked about Kosovo, we talked about Kyrgyzstan. I informed Mr. Zoellick of our intentions regarding the traveling to Kyrgyzstan in the days to come. I also spoke about what has happened there, what the situation is there now and what was the role of Slovenia there during this time. We noted that the role of the OSCE is this case was of course beneficial and that it can also prove very important in the future. This is why our activities there will continue.
Concerning Kyrgyzstan, I already talked to some other colleagues, also to Mrs. Rice some days ago, and today we presented a situation currently existing there. We said that we intend to assist with the issues regarding the implementation or carrying out elections about legal and constitutional affairs with the so-called police assistance. We are speaking here about training of police forces, about settling the issues concerned with the operation and organization of police forces in Kyrgyzstan.
Regarding bilateral relations, I am certain that our guest will be able to say something more. We expressed, both me and Prime Minister our interest for comprehensive and increased cooperation between the United States and Slovenia in the economic area. We also expressed our interest to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, and we spoke about how it would be possible to cooperate in the coming months not only in the economic area but also in the area of countries around us in our area, meaning countries of Southeastern Europe, also Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq, et cetera.
I would like to reiterate, we are very much in favor of strengthening economic cooperation between the U.S. and Slovenia in the area of trading goods and services as well as in the area of foreign direct investment. So much from my part. Mr. Zoellick, the floor is yours.
DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK: Thank you very much, Minister. I think the Minister gave you a good sense of the topics that we had a chance to discuss, but I want to thank the Minister, as well as the Prime Minister for their graciousness in meeting with me today. The prime purpose of this visit was for me to come and be able to listen and to learn some of Slovenia's primary topics of interest.
This is the first visit of 14 different capitals that I'll be meeting with our NATO partners in over the next week or so, and it reflects President Bush and Secretary Rice's view that early in this second term of President Bush they wanted to come to Europe, talk about some of the issues on our agenda, and I on this trip am trying to visit the various capitals that they did not have a chance to visit yet. So we wanted in the early months of this term to be able to have an opportunity to hear in capitals of people's primary interests.
So as the Minister said, we had a chance to cover in particular Slovenia's leadership role in the OSCE. We talked about how this is particularly important given the events in Kyrgyzstan and I know the Minister is playing an active day by day if not hour by hour role in terms of trying to work with the other members of the OSCE and support the democratic process in Kyrgyzstan. But we also spent considerable time on the Balkans. And here as well I wanted to make sure I got the Minister's perspective on the events ahead because we think that 2005 will be a very important year for the process in the Balkans.
In general, as I expressed to both the Prime Minster and the Foreign Minister, we are delighted that Slovenia is a new member of both NATO and the European Union. As a member of both we see it as part of a larger transatlantic community. So whether the issues that we deal with are part of the transatlantic space or ones farther afield in Afghanistan, Iraq, even Sudan which we talked about, we want to make sure that we understand and fully appreciate the views of Slovenia. That was the main reason why I wanted to come here and to listen to those perspectives.
SLOVENE MFA SPOKESWOMAN MIRIAM MOZGAN: Unfortunately we are short with time so we'll only have time to answer two questions. Maybe Spela?
QUESTION: Spela Novak from Radio Slovenia.
I would have one question. Is your tour around Europe also intended to solve some trade disputes between the United States and the EU? Recently you also tackled a lot of issues about Boeing. So is this also one of the issues on your agenda?
DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK: Not really. Although I'm open to any topics that my colleagues may wish to raise with me. But I had the pleasure of serving as a Trade Minister for four years, now I'm back at our Foreign Ministry where I had served from '89 to '92. So the Minister and the Prime Minister did discuss some of the economic reforms and we had a chance to talk briefly about the fact that what I've been able to see take place in the global economy over the past four years gives me a particular perspective on the challenge that countries face, whether it be with their education system, their pension system, their tax system and others, to remain competitive. I got some opportunity to ask the Prime Minister about some of the plans for the new government in those dimensions for Slovenia. Obviously a big aspect is the steps that Slovenia is taking to meet the criteria for joining the euro in 2007. So I'm no longer the Trade Minister but I'm permitted to talk about the subject if people raise it with me.
QUESTION: Marija Novak from Reuters. I'll ask in Slovene.
What are your impressions with the events in Kyrgyzstan and do you expect that similar revolutions, if we call it that, could happen in some neighboring countries, former members of the Soviet Union? And what is your prediction regarding the future status of Kosovo? When and how do you think the decision will be reached on the status of Kosovo? Thank you.
DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK: As to your first question, I think what we've seen over the course of past months is an expression by people in very diverse parts of the world, whether it be Ukraine, whether it be Georgia, whether it be Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian elections, of a desire to be free and to participate in their own future with their government and take part in a process of self-determination. Lebanon as well, where you have people moving towards true independence.
There are certainly large changes afoot, but the process of change also requires careful attention by countries that want to try to support the process taking place peacefully. So in that context with your question on Kyrgyzstan, we think that there's a particular role for the OSCE to play. The Minister and I talked about aspects of that role.
First, we think there is a key role in terms of trying to bring the parties together within Kyrgyzstan as they sort of deal with the departure of the President and looking towards the new government and new elections. There is a role that can be played by the OSCE in election assistance and also election monitoring, work with the free press. The Minister also mentioned to support some of the police services. The OSCE can also play a role among its 55 members in terms of making sure that key partners, particularly neighbors -- Kazakhstan, Russia, others -- have a comfort about the process moving forward and support the process.
So I think all these need to be kept in the context of recognizing that the people of Kyrgyzstan want to determine their own future.
So we are absolutely delighted that Slovenia is in the chair of OSCE because this is a country that also wanted to determine its own future not many years ago and has done so very ably.
In the context of the Balkans, I think as both the Minister and I mentioned, 2005 is already scheduled to be a year where there are to be a review of various standards but also status discussions. It's important to see how these fit together. So the future of Kosovo obviously depends on discussions with Serbia and also as Slovenia has discussed with its Croatian neighbors.
I think we are in agreement, but I'll let the Minister speak for himself on this, that this will be most successful if these discussions take place within a broader European context, if there's a recognition of a vision and future for these countries within a European space.
This is not easy because the European Union has been moving through a rather extensive enlargement process. It's got a constitutional process. So there are some people in other capitals in Europe that probably want to take a pause, but history doesn't permit a pause, and that's one reason why I wanted to come here, because I wanted to get a sense from the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister about their perspective on these issues so we could work together with them and with other European partners during the course of 2005.
MS. MOZGAN: Thank you.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
Letter From Kosovo by Misha Glenny in the Nation
by MISHA GLENNY
[from the April 11, 2005 issue]
Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned as Kosovo's prime minister on March 8, had been expecting his indictment for alleged war crimes for almost three months. American and European diplomats spent much of that time coaxing him to surrender voluntarily when the announcement was made. "He started to wobble a bit a couple of weeks before it was made public, but obviously we got over it," one of them told me in Belgrade.
International representatives put so much effort into persuading Haradinaj to go quietly because they were terrified that Kosovar Albanians might react by going on a rampage as they did in March 2004, almost bringing UNMIK, the United Nations administration that runs the province, to its knees. And boy, did the diplomats let their relief show. "Thanks to Ramush Haradinaj's dynamic leadership, strong commitment and vision," gushed Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of UNMIK, "Kosovo is today closer than ever before to achieving its aspirations in settling its future status. Personally, I am saddened to no longer be working with a close partner and friend." There was some concern in European capitals that Jessen-Petersen had gone over the top. "After all," said a diplomat in Belgrade, "let's not forget that Haradinaj has been indicted for committing the foulest of crimes."
Yet Jessen-Petersen's passionate outburst is understandable. International control over Kosovo is fragile. KFOR, the NATO-led force of 18,000 peacekeepers, is designed to prevent an unauthorized return of the Serbian military into the province; as it proved last March, it has no capacity to pacify tens of thousands of testosterone-driven young Albanians who are fed up with being unemployed and having no political control over their lives.
I have spent the past six years watching glumly as the Balkans slide back toward catastrophe as if in slow motion. Only a small minority of the actors involved want this outcome; many are breaking their backs to stop it from happening. But despite their efforts, three factors are driving the region toward, at best, damaging civil unrest and, at worst, a revival of armed conflict: a steady, severe economic crisis; the persistence of weak states caught up in an unholy constitutional tangle; and profound incompetence on the part of the international community.
Until the mess actually collapses into violence, there are real opportunities to halt the slide. But the countdown to disaster has already begun, and the region urgently requires the kind of political adroitness and élan that have been conspicuously absent over the past five years. The Balkans provide the clearest proof that Western military intervention, whether liberal or illiberal, is a complete waste of time, money and life if it is not accompanied by a coherent, long-term attempt to address the root causes of instability after hostilities have ceased. But as Western Europe and the United States are learning, it's easy to defeat small countries with limited military strength, and mind-bogglingly hard to create a working system of governance from the ashes of victory.
NATO supposedly dealt with the southern Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999 by going to war against Yugoslavia. (For those who have missed the past few episodes, what's left of that country has been refashioned as Serbia and Montenegro, although nobody believes this latest incarnation will last for very long.) In the past five years Kosovo has become unrecognizable, but in a very recognizable way. Its crumbling roads, heaving under the weight of civilian and international military vehicles, are punctuated every half-mile by gas stations trading under different, perhaps unique, emblems: Kospetrol, Kosova Petrol, Djukagjini Inc., International Gas and Petrol, ShqipGas, etc. Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Lukoil (the Russian company ubiquitous elsewhere in the Balkans) are absent--a blow, perhaps, against the multinational giants and in favor of the small trader. Er, not quite.
Peppered between the gas stations are hotels, motels and restaurants offering countless beds to phantom tourists and kebabs, delicious cheese burek and Ohrid trout to ghostly foodies. Except for a few chic eateries in the main urban areas, these establishments are not going concerns but the long-term investment bolt-holes of corrupt politicians and organized criminal syndicates who have mountains of cash but nothing to do with it. The opprobrium that used to be hurled at Balkan people because of their apparent predilection for killing their neighbors is now drawn by their apparent tolerance for, and widespread indulgence in, organized criminal activities--drug dealing, trafficking of women and cigarette smuggling, to name but a few of the most popular. The Kosovars are seen as key movers in all these industries.
Before we condemn, let us consider the economic environment developed for the people of Kosovo by the combined might of the UN, the European Union and KFOR. (The people of Kosovo, whether Serb or Albanian, have no control of economic policy.) Two statistics stand out. First, Kosovo is the only territory in Europe that has recorded a negative growth rate each year since 2002. (Its sole competitor is the unrecognized breakaway republic of Transdniestria in Moldova, whose decline can be attributed to the emigration of about half its population in the past decade.) Second, overall unemployment stands at 50 percent, while youth unemployment runs at 70 percent. Every year 30,000-40,000 young Kosovars enter a nonexistent job market. Yet Kosovo is almost completely surrounded, both economically and culturally, by the affluence of the EU. If a young Kosovar, struggling to raise children and look after elderly parents, is offered $700 (well over twice a ministerial salary in Kosovo's provisional government) to lead a donkey packed with cigarettes over the border to Montenegro, will he hesitate because of the moral implications of the act?
This decline, and the dysfunctional mafia economy it has precipitated, is largely the consequence of an utterly botched privatization strategy executed by the EU via the inefficient and corrupt Kosovo Trust Agency, which is staffed and run by Western civil servants. Under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which details the limbo in which Kosovo must live, most political decisions at all levels of government are reserved for the UN's Special Representative in Pristina and his bureaucracy, while the powers of the provisional government and the municipalities are carefully restricted.
Stirred into this paralyzing brew are the Serbs' and Albanians' antithetical aspirations for the province, and the grim conditions in which the Serb minority in Kosovo lives. Resolution 1244 stipulates that the province is part of Serbia under the temporary aegis of the UN, until such time as all parties happily work out Kosovo's long-term constitutional future. For the Albanians, who currently make up some 90 percent of the population, independence is the only acceptable solution. (Albanian nationalists who seek union with the motherland are not to be underestimated, but they form a minority in Kosovo's political spectrum; Albanians from Albania openly oppose the idea. The international community is adamant that an independent Kosovo would not be permitted to form a political union with either Albania or the Albanian-dominated parts of Macedonia.) Most of Serbia's political spectrum concedes the possibility of advanced autonomy for Kosovo, whereby ultimate sovereignty (including foreign and defense policy) would rest in Belgrade. They would also demand self-governance for Serb-populated zones in the province.
Although in public the chancelleries of Europe and America insist that the so-called "final status" of Kosovo must wait until the Kosovars have achieved acceptable political standards (code for decent treatment of the Serb minority), in private all now more or less agree that Kosovo must become independent. Even Russia, Serbia's supposed staunch ally, shows no real interest in blocking Kosovo's statehood beyond rhetorical bluster. Some quarters even advocate independence regardless of the views of Kosovo's Serbs or Serbia. Crudely paraphrased, the most recent report of the International Crisis Group, an influential Brussels-based think tank, calls for independence for Kosovo with Serbia's approval, but if the Serbs don't like it, screw them.
Attractive though this solution may seem to some people, it will not work. Serbia is the key regional power and the main transit route for goods from the region to the rest of Europe, and for goods from northern Europe to the Middle East. If Kosovo becomes independent without Serbian approval, the prospects for a stable Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia are slim, as Serbian influence in these countries is almost certain to turn malign. Furthermore, the 100,000 Serbs still in the province will probably decamp to southern Serbia. Even this might be sustainable were it not that tens of thousands of Albanians live there under the rules of a very decent but fragile peace deal negotiated for the region in May 2001. None of these eventualities would benefit a newly independent Kosovo, which will be characterized, above all else, by economic weakness.
In public, all Serbian leaders rule out independence. In private, most members of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's governing coalition, along with the Democratic Party of his rival, President Boris Tadic, concede that the loss of Kosovo is more or less inevitable. But if they are to transform their private assessment into public reality, they need a serious incentive. At the moment, it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
The EU possesses the very incentive required to smooth Kosovo's transition from a failing protectorate to an independent state free from the seeds of future conflict. If the EU were to suggest fast-tracking Serbia for EU membership, as it has done for Croatia, Serbia's leaders would have a real argument with which to convince the public that Kosovo's independence is not the worst of the many depressing options open to their country.
Unfortunately, creative policies for the Balkans have rarely issued from the EU or the United States. Furthermore, the political process is seriously hampered by the activities of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and its chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte. Throughout her tenure, del Ponte has maintained that her role is solely judicial, not political. And yet she holds a veto on the progress of EU accession negotiations, which affords her immense political influence. It is not an influence that generally contributes to stability.
Haradinaj, just 36 years old, is the first leading Kosovar Albanian to be indicted by the tribunal. He heads the third-largest political party in the province, the AAK, and is seen as the chief rival of another young and very energetic Kosovo politician, Hashim Thaci, who heads the second-largest party, the PDK. Haradinaj's main power base is the west of the province. Elsewhere his appeal is limited but growing. He did not win a popular vote but secured the office of prime minister after last October's elections because the AAK held the balance of power. Jessen-Petersen's assessment of Haradinaj's political ability is probably fair: Since then he has injected some real dynamism into the political process.
Haradinaj's trip to The Hague (which is likely to last many years) coincides with several other surrenders to the ICTY that are also significant but have not received media attention in the West. Ten days before Haradinaj surrendered, Rasim Delic, the former chief of the Bosnian Army, who had earlier given himself up, appeared in court for the first time to hear the war crimes charges leveled against him. Then Momcilo Perisic, onetime head of the Yugoslav army, turned himself in; it is expected that Belgrade will hand over two other main suspects in the hope that this will move forward its tortured EU accession talks. Meanwhile, the EU told Croatia that unless it handed over its most wanted suspect, Ante Gotovina, by March 16 it would not be allowed to start final accession negotiations. Sure enough, the EU held firm and snatched the holy grail of final accession from the hands of the Croatian government after the deadline. This is a catastrophic blow to Zagreb--and one that some EU governments are unhappy about--as EU membership for Croatia is regarded as critical to the stability of the region. In the end, however, the EU concluded understandably that it would lose all political purchase on Serbia if it were to allow Gotovina through the net while insisting on Ratko Mladic et al. from Belgrade as a condition of progress in EU talks.
For all its destabilizing effects, the ICTY is a political reality, and for governments in the former Yugoslavia to resist its mandate is futile and self-defeating, and damaging to their long-term interests. The EU and the United States are exerting maximum pressure on all countries and territories in the region to comply with the ICTY in order to neutralize as soon as possible the negative impact of the demands for indictees to be handed over on the political process of reconciliation. This is because the crisis in the region is set to come to a head this summer. When the UN launched its flaccid negotiation process for Kosovo two years ago under the slogan "Standards Before Status," summer 2005 was set as the target for final-status talks to begin. If that deadline is not met, then KFOR, the international military force, is likely to face real difficulties. The last time Albanian frustration at the apparent lack of progress exploded was in March 2004, when the resentment of young Albanian males led to several days of province-wide mob rioting. The initial targets were Serbs, but the rioters also destroyed vehicles, buildings and other assets belonging to the UN and KFOR. All the international actors know that a repeat of this on a wider scale is a real possibility. If it were to happen again in the next year, the southern Balkans could no longer be at peace.
[from the April 11, 2005 issue]
Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned as Kosovo's prime minister on March 8, had been expecting his indictment for alleged war crimes for almost three months. American and European diplomats spent much of that time coaxing him to surrender voluntarily when the announcement was made. "He started to wobble a bit a couple of weeks before it was made public, but obviously we got over it," one of them told me in Belgrade.
International representatives put so much effort into persuading Haradinaj to go quietly because they were terrified that Kosovar Albanians might react by going on a rampage as they did in March 2004, almost bringing UNMIK, the United Nations administration that runs the province, to its knees. And boy, did the diplomats let their relief show. "Thanks to Ramush Haradinaj's dynamic leadership, strong commitment and vision," gushed Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of UNMIK, "Kosovo is today closer than ever before to achieving its aspirations in settling its future status. Personally, I am saddened to no longer be working with a close partner and friend." There was some concern in European capitals that Jessen-Petersen had gone over the top. "After all," said a diplomat in Belgrade, "let's not forget that Haradinaj has been indicted for committing the foulest of crimes."
Yet Jessen-Petersen's passionate outburst is understandable. International control over Kosovo is fragile. KFOR, the NATO-led force of 18,000 peacekeepers, is designed to prevent an unauthorized return of the Serbian military into the province; as it proved last March, it has no capacity to pacify tens of thousands of testosterone-driven young Albanians who are fed up with being unemployed and having no political control over their lives.
I have spent the past six years watching glumly as the Balkans slide back toward catastrophe as if in slow motion. Only a small minority of the actors involved want this outcome; many are breaking their backs to stop it from happening. But despite their efforts, three factors are driving the region toward, at best, damaging civil unrest and, at worst, a revival of armed conflict: a steady, severe economic crisis; the persistence of weak states caught up in an unholy constitutional tangle; and profound incompetence on the part of the international community.
Until the mess actually collapses into violence, there are real opportunities to halt the slide. But the countdown to disaster has already begun, and the region urgently requires the kind of political adroitness and élan that have been conspicuously absent over the past five years. The Balkans provide the clearest proof that Western military intervention, whether liberal or illiberal, is a complete waste of time, money and life if it is not accompanied by a coherent, long-term attempt to address the root causes of instability after hostilities have ceased. But as Western Europe and the United States are learning, it's easy to defeat small countries with limited military strength, and mind-bogglingly hard to create a working system of governance from the ashes of victory.
NATO supposedly dealt with the southern Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999 by going to war against Yugoslavia. (For those who have missed the past few episodes, what's left of that country has been refashioned as Serbia and Montenegro, although nobody believes this latest incarnation will last for very long.) In the past five years Kosovo has become unrecognizable, but in a very recognizable way. Its crumbling roads, heaving under the weight of civilian and international military vehicles, are punctuated every half-mile by gas stations trading under different, perhaps unique, emblems: Kospetrol, Kosova Petrol, Djukagjini Inc., International Gas and Petrol, ShqipGas, etc. Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Lukoil (the Russian company ubiquitous elsewhere in the Balkans) are absent--a blow, perhaps, against the multinational giants and in favor of the small trader. Er, not quite.
Peppered between the gas stations are hotels, motels and restaurants offering countless beds to phantom tourists and kebabs, delicious cheese burek and Ohrid trout to ghostly foodies. Except for a few chic eateries in the main urban areas, these establishments are not going concerns but the long-term investment bolt-holes of corrupt politicians and organized criminal syndicates who have mountains of cash but nothing to do with it. The opprobrium that used to be hurled at Balkan people because of their apparent predilection for killing their neighbors is now drawn by their apparent tolerance for, and widespread indulgence in, organized criminal activities--drug dealing, trafficking of women and cigarette smuggling, to name but a few of the most popular. The Kosovars are seen as key movers in all these industries.
Before we condemn, let us consider the economic environment developed for the people of Kosovo by the combined might of the UN, the European Union and KFOR. (The people of Kosovo, whether Serb or Albanian, have no control of economic policy.) Two statistics stand out. First, Kosovo is the only territory in Europe that has recorded a negative growth rate each year since 2002. (Its sole competitor is the unrecognized breakaway republic of Transdniestria in Moldova, whose decline can be attributed to the emigration of about half its population in the past decade.) Second, overall unemployment stands at 50 percent, while youth unemployment runs at 70 percent. Every year 30,000-40,000 young Kosovars enter a nonexistent job market. Yet Kosovo is almost completely surrounded, both economically and culturally, by the affluence of the EU. If a young Kosovar, struggling to raise children and look after elderly parents, is offered $700 (well over twice a ministerial salary in Kosovo's provisional government) to lead a donkey packed with cigarettes over the border to Montenegro, will he hesitate because of the moral implications of the act?
This decline, and the dysfunctional mafia economy it has precipitated, is largely the consequence of an utterly botched privatization strategy executed by the EU via the inefficient and corrupt Kosovo Trust Agency, which is staffed and run by Western civil servants. Under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which details the limbo in which Kosovo must live, most political decisions at all levels of government are reserved for the UN's Special Representative in Pristina and his bureaucracy, while the powers of the provisional government and the municipalities are carefully restricted.
Stirred into this paralyzing brew are the Serbs' and Albanians' antithetical aspirations for the province, and the grim conditions in which the Serb minority in Kosovo lives. Resolution 1244 stipulates that the province is part of Serbia under the temporary aegis of the UN, until such time as all parties happily work out Kosovo's long-term constitutional future. For the Albanians, who currently make up some 90 percent of the population, independence is the only acceptable solution. (Albanian nationalists who seek union with the motherland are not to be underestimated, but they form a minority in Kosovo's political spectrum; Albanians from Albania openly oppose the idea. The international community is adamant that an independent Kosovo would not be permitted to form a political union with either Albania or the Albanian-dominated parts of Macedonia.) Most of Serbia's political spectrum concedes the possibility of advanced autonomy for Kosovo, whereby ultimate sovereignty (including foreign and defense policy) would rest in Belgrade. They would also demand self-governance for Serb-populated zones in the province.
Although in public the chancelleries of Europe and America insist that the so-called "final status" of Kosovo must wait until the Kosovars have achieved acceptable political standards (code for decent treatment of the Serb minority), in private all now more or less agree that Kosovo must become independent. Even Russia, Serbia's supposed staunch ally, shows no real interest in blocking Kosovo's statehood beyond rhetorical bluster. Some quarters even advocate independence regardless of the views of Kosovo's Serbs or Serbia. Crudely paraphrased, the most recent report of the International Crisis Group, an influential Brussels-based think tank, calls for independence for Kosovo with Serbia's approval, but if the Serbs don't like it, screw them.
Attractive though this solution may seem to some people, it will not work. Serbia is the key regional power and the main transit route for goods from the region to the rest of Europe, and for goods from northern Europe to the Middle East. If Kosovo becomes independent without Serbian approval, the prospects for a stable Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia are slim, as Serbian influence in these countries is almost certain to turn malign. Furthermore, the 100,000 Serbs still in the province will probably decamp to southern Serbia. Even this might be sustainable were it not that tens of thousands of Albanians live there under the rules of a very decent but fragile peace deal negotiated for the region in May 2001. None of these eventualities would benefit a newly independent Kosovo, which will be characterized, above all else, by economic weakness.
In public, all Serbian leaders rule out independence. In private, most members of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's governing coalition, along with the Democratic Party of his rival, President Boris Tadic, concede that the loss of Kosovo is more or less inevitable. But if they are to transform their private assessment into public reality, they need a serious incentive. At the moment, it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
The EU possesses the very incentive required to smooth Kosovo's transition from a failing protectorate to an independent state free from the seeds of future conflict. If the EU were to suggest fast-tracking Serbia for EU membership, as it has done for Croatia, Serbia's leaders would have a real argument with which to convince the public that Kosovo's independence is not the worst of the many depressing options open to their country.
Unfortunately, creative policies for the Balkans have rarely issued from the EU or the United States. Furthermore, the political process is seriously hampered by the activities of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and its chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte. Throughout her tenure, del Ponte has maintained that her role is solely judicial, not political. And yet she holds a veto on the progress of EU accession negotiations, which affords her immense political influence. It is not an influence that generally contributes to stability.
Haradinaj, just 36 years old, is the first leading Kosovar Albanian to be indicted by the tribunal. He heads the third-largest political party in the province, the AAK, and is seen as the chief rival of another young and very energetic Kosovo politician, Hashim Thaci, who heads the second-largest party, the PDK. Haradinaj's main power base is the west of the province. Elsewhere his appeal is limited but growing. He did not win a popular vote but secured the office of prime minister after last October's elections because the AAK held the balance of power. Jessen-Petersen's assessment of Haradinaj's political ability is probably fair: Since then he has injected some real dynamism into the political process.
Haradinaj's trip to The Hague (which is likely to last many years) coincides with several other surrenders to the ICTY that are also significant but have not received media attention in the West. Ten days before Haradinaj surrendered, Rasim Delic, the former chief of the Bosnian Army, who had earlier given himself up, appeared in court for the first time to hear the war crimes charges leveled against him. Then Momcilo Perisic, onetime head of the Yugoslav army, turned himself in; it is expected that Belgrade will hand over two other main suspects in the hope that this will move forward its tortured EU accession talks. Meanwhile, the EU told Croatia that unless it handed over its most wanted suspect, Ante Gotovina, by March 16 it would not be allowed to start final accession negotiations. Sure enough, the EU held firm and snatched the holy grail of final accession from the hands of the Croatian government after the deadline. This is a catastrophic blow to Zagreb--and one that some EU governments are unhappy about--as EU membership for Croatia is regarded as critical to the stability of the region. In the end, however, the EU concluded understandably that it would lose all political purchase on Serbia if it were to allow Gotovina through the net while insisting on Ratko Mladic et al. from Belgrade as a condition of progress in EU talks.
For all its destabilizing effects, the ICTY is a political reality, and for governments in the former Yugoslavia to resist its mandate is futile and self-defeating, and damaging to their long-term interests. The EU and the United States are exerting maximum pressure on all countries and territories in the region to comply with the ICTY in order to neutralize as soon as possible the negative impact of the demands for indictees to be handed over on the political process of reconciliation. This is because the crisis in the region is set to come to a head this summer. When the UN launched its flaccid negotiation process for Kosovo two years ago under the slogan "Standards Before Status," summer 2005 was set as the target for final-status talks to begin. If that deadline is not met, then KFOR, the international military force, is likely to face real difficulties. The last time Albanian frustration at the apparent lack of progress exploded was in March 2004, when the resentment of young Albanian males led to several days of province-wide mob rioting. The initial targets were Serbs, but the rioters also destroyed vehicles, buildings and other assets belonging to the UN and KFOR. All the international actors know that a repeat of this on a wider scale is a real possibility. If it were to happen again in the next year, the southern Balkans could no longer be at peace.
Kai Eide to replace Søren Jessen-Petersen?
Several local daily newspapers quote information broadcast by Belgrade-based Beta news agency according to which the former Norwegian Ambassador to NATO Kai Eide could replace Jessen-Petersen in the post of UNMIK chief. According to Beta, Eide, who is author of the UN report after March riots last year, has received the support of many important international factors. The Belgrade news agency reportedly got this information from unnamed sources in Brussels.
Koha Ditore’s headline on page three on this issue is Kai Eide – ‘doomed’ to work with Kosovo?
Koha Ditore’s headline on page three on this issue is Kai Eide – ‘doomed’ to work with Kosovo?
Prishtina and Belgrade are preparing for talks
Prishtina, March 29, 2005 – The head of UNMIK, Soren Jessen-Petersen says that he has reached an agreement with Belgrade officials for commencement of talks on energy and the return. These talks would be lead by EU, respectively UNHCR.
Jessen-Petersen told KosovaLive upon arrival at the Prishtina Airport that the official Belgrade has not yet given a clear signal for Kosovo Serbs to join the institutions, but he believes that this will happen in the coming weeks.
“We agreed to continue the work of the group on missing persons. We also agreed to start the work with working groups on energy and on the return. And now we have the chairman of this group from the EU. He is Jolly Dickinson. Whereas the UNHCR will chair the working group on the return,“ he said.
Belgrade authorities also suggested that there should also be talks on property issues. “ I think this is an important issue and we will consider it. We agreed to start with the dialogue on energy and on the return immediately and later on to see the issues related to property,” Jessen–Petersen said.
Jessen-Petersen told KosovaLive upon arrival at the Prishtina Airport that the official Belgrade has not yet given a clear signal for Kosovo Serbs to join the institutions, but he believes that this will happen in the coming weeks.
“We agreed to continue the work of the group on missing persons. We also agreed to start the work with working groups on energy and on the return. And now we have the chairman of this group from the EU. He is Jolly Dickinson. Whereas the UNHCR will chair the working group on the return,“ he said.
Belgrade authorities also suggested that there should also be talks on property issues. “ I think this is an important issue and we will consider it. We agreed to start with the dialogue on energy and on the return immediately and later on to see the issues related to property,” Jessen–Petersen said.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Kosovo loses patience with UN mission as the economy flags
CHRISTIAN JENNINGS IN PRISTINA
WHEN three armour-piercing bullets struck communications equipment on the roof of the United Nations headquarters in Kosovo’s regional capital earlier this month, staff there took it as a warning.
Once seen as the province’s saviour from the hated regime of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbs, the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) - which since 1999 has been the area’s de facto government - seems to have lost the public’s goodwill.
In a recent poll carried out by the UN Development Programme, 75 per cent of Kosovars said they are dissatisfied with the UN mission.
Only days before the attack on the UN HQ, Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo’s popular prime minister, resigned and surrendered to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Aside from a failed bomb attack on president Ibrahim Rugova’s motorcade, an expected violent backlash did not materialise.
But western staff and military officials in Kosovo and Europe warn that the security situation could "significantly deteriorate" between now and mid-summer, as frustration with the UN seethes just below the surface.
Colonel Yves Kermorvant, a spokesman for K-FOR, the 19,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force in the province, assured journalists last week that "the security situation in Kosovo is excellent".
Soren Jessen-Petersen, effectively the UN’s pro-consul in Kosovo, was less optimistic.
"A series of security incidents highlight the essential volatility of the situation in Kosovo, and the readiness to resort to violence by those still bent on blocking progress," the Dane said. "Such lawlessness could still, in certain circumstances, communicate itself to broader sections of the public."
International officials in the former Yugoslav province say discussions have been held between the UN HQ in New York and the mission in Pristina about the feasibility of re-locating UNMIK’s headquarters to outside the capital, where it will be easier to evacuate if the security situation breaks down.
After the bombing of the UN HQ in Baghdad in 2003, security officials in New York are taking no chances. But senior UNMIK officials say that this would give the worst possible message to Kosovo’s population at a time when crucial progress is being made towards possible talks on the province’s future independence.
A cross-section of mostly employed, educated and politically moderate Kosovo Albanians questioned over the last ten days explained why the UN mission in Kosovo is so unpopular.
The personal popularity of Mr Jessen-Petersen is on the up because he is seen as straight-talking and is pushing forward the agenda on the province’s independence. But the mission itself is seen as untrustworthy, aloof, corrupt, subject to a separate set of laws from Kosovars, and responsible for the political limbo in which Kosovo has remained since 1999.
UN security council resolution 1244, which has mandated the UN and NATO’s presence in and administration of Kosovo from June 1999 onwards, specifies that the former Yugoslav province will remain part of Serbia and Montenegro until its final status is agreed.
The lack of political resolution has meant that the main, and justified bugbear of Kosovars is the parlous state of the economy, which means few jobs, low international investment, high crime, and unemployment running at between 30 per cent and 55 per cent.
Suspicious of state apparatuses, Albanians see most international and local institutions as corrupt, regardless of evidence.
But in the western Balkans, where perception is king, each incident can be blown out of all proportion by suspicious and violence-prone extremists of any ethnicity.
WHEN three armour-piercing bullets struck communications equipment on the roof of the United Nations headquarters in Kosovo’s regional capital earlier this month, staff there took it as a warning.
Once seen as the province’s saviour from the hated regime of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbs, the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) - which since 1999 has been the area’s de facto government - seems to have lost the public’s goodwill.
In a recent poll carried out by the UN Development Programme, 75 per cent of Kosovars said they are dissatisfied with the UN mission.
Only days before the attack on the UN HQ, Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo’s popular prime minister, resigned and surrendered to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Aside from a failed bomb attack on president Ibrahim Rugova’s motorcade, an expected violent backlash did not materialise.
But western staff and military officials in Kosovo and Europe warn that the security situation could "significantly deteriorate" between now and mid-summer, as frustration with the UN seethes just below the surface.
Colonel Yves Kermorvant, a spokesman for K-FOR, the 19,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force in the province, assured journalists last week that "the security situation in Kosovo is excellent".
Soren Jessen-Petersen, effectively the UN’s pro-consul in Kosovo, was less optimistic.
"A series of security incidents highlight the essential volatility of the situation in Kosovo, and the readiness to resort to violence by those still bent on blocking progress," the Dane said. "Such lawlessness could still, in certain circumstances, communicate itself to broader sections of the public."
International officials in the former Yugoslav province say discussions have been held between the UN HQ in New York and the mission in Pristina about the feasibility of re-locating UNMIK’s headquarters to outside the capital, where it will be easier to evacuate if the security situation breaks down.
After the bombing of the UN HQ in Baghdad in 2003, security officials in New York are taking no chances. But senior UNMIK officials say that this would give the worst possible message to Kosovo’s population at a time when crucial progress is being made towards possible talks on the province’s future independence.
A cross-section of mostly employed, educated and politically moderate Kosovo Albanians questioned over the last ten days explained why the UN mission in Kosovo is so unpopular.
The personal popularity of Mr Jessen-Petersen is on the up because he is seen as straight-talking and is pushing forward the agenda on the province’s independence. But the mission itself is seen as untrustworthy, aloof, corrupt, subject to a separate set of laws from Kosovars, and responsible for the political limbo in which Kosovo has remained since 1999.
UN security council resolution 1244, which has mandated the UN and NATO’s presence in and administration of Kosovo from June 1999 onwards, specifies that the former Yugoslav province will remain part of Serbia and Montenegro until its final status is agreed.
The lack of political resolution has meant that the main, and justified bugbear of Kosovars is the parlous state of the economy, which means few jobs, low international investment, high crime, and unemployment running at between 30 per cent and 55 per cent.
Suspicious of state apparatuses, Albanians see most international and local institutions as corrupt, regardless of evidence.
But in the western Balkans, where perception is king, each incident can be blown out of all proportion by suspicious and violence-prone extremists of any ethnicity.
Kosovo loses patience with UN mission as the economy flags
CHRISTIAN JENNINGS IN PRISTINA
WHEN three armour-piercing bullets struck communications equipment on the roof of the United Nations headquarters in Kosovo’s regional capital earlier this month, staff there took it as a warning.
Once seen as the province’s saviour from the hated regime of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbs, the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) - which since 1999 has been the area’s de facto government - seems to have lost the public’s goodwill.
In a recent poll carried out by the UN Development Programme, 75 per cent of Kosovars said they are dissatisfied with the UN mission.
Only days before the attack on the UN HQ, Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo’s popular prime minister, resigned and surrendered to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Aside from a failed bomb attack on president Ibrahim Rugova’s motorcade, an expected violent backlash did not materialise.
But western staff and military officials in Kosovo and Europe warn that the security situation could "significantly deteriorate" between now and mid-summer, as frustration with the UN seethes just below the surface.
Colonel Yves Kermorvant, a spokesman for K-FOR, the 19,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force in the province, assured journalists last week that "the security situation in Kosovo is excellent".
Soren Jessen-Petersen, effectively the UN’s pro-consul in Kosovo, was less optimistic.
"A series of security incidents highlight the essential volatility of the situation in Kosovo, and the readiness to resort to violence by those still bent on blocking progress," the Dane said. "Such lawlessness could still, in certain circumstances, communicate itself to broader sections of the public."
International officials in the former Yugoslav province say discussions have been held between the UN HQ in New York and the mission in Pristina about the feasibility of re-locating UNMIK’s headquarters to outside the capital, where it will be easier to evacuate if the security situation breaks down.
After the bombing of the UN HQ in Baghdad in 2003, security officials in New York are taking no chances. But senior UNMIK officials say that this would give the worst possible message to Kosovo’s population at a time when crucial progress is being made towards possible talks on the province’s future independence.
A cross-section of mostly employed, educated and politically moderate Kosovo Albanians questioned over the last ten days explained why the UN mission in Kosovo is so unpopular.
The personal popularity of Mr Jessen-Petersen is on the up because he is seen as straight-talking and is pushing forward the agenda on the province’s independence. But the mission itself is seen as untrustworthy, aloof, corrupt, subject to a separate set of laws from Kosovars, and responsible for the political limbo in which Kosovo has remained since 1999.
UN security council resolution 1244, which has mandated the UN and NATO’s presence in and administration of Kosovo from June 1999 onwards, specifies that the former Yugoslav province will remain part of Serbia and Montenegro until its final status is agreed.
The lack of political resolution has meant that the main, and justified bugbear of Kosovars is the parlous state of the economy, which means few jobs, low international investment, high crime, and unemployment running at between 30 per cent and 55 per cent.
Suspicious of state apparatuses, Albanians see most international and local institutions as corrupt, regardless of evidence.
But in the western Balkans, where perception is king, each incident can be blown out of all proportion by suspicious and violence-prone extremists of any ethnicity.
WHEN three armour-piercing bullets struck communications equipment on the roof of the United Nations headquarters in Kosovo’s regional capital earlier this month, staff there took it as a warning.
Once seen as the province’s saviour from the hated regime of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbs, the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) - which since 1999 has been the area’s de facto government - seems to have lost the public’s goodwill.
In a recent poll carried out by the UN Development Programme, 75 per cent of Kosovars said they are dissatisfied with the UN mission.
Only days before the attack on the UN HQ, Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo’s popular prime minister, resigned and surrendered to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Aside from a failed bomb attack on president Ibrahim Rugova’s motorcade, an expected violent backlash did not materialise.
But western staff and military officials in Kosovo and Europe warn that the security situation could "significantly deteriorate" between now and mid-summer, as frustration with the UN seethes just below the surface.
Colonel Yves Kermorvant, a spokesman for K-FOR, the 19,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force in the province, assured journalists last week that "the security situation in Kosovo is excellent".
Soren Jessen-Petersen, effectively the UN’s pro-consul in Kosovo, was less optimistic.
"A series of security incidents highlight the essential volatility of the situation in Kosovo, and the readiness to resort to violence by those still bent on blocking progress," the Dane said. "Such lawlessness could still, in certain circumstances, communicate itself to broader sections of the public."
International officials in the former Yugoslav province say discussions have been held between the UN HQ in New York and the mission in Pristina about the feasibility of re-locating UNMIK’s headquarters to outside the capital, where it will be easier to evacuate if the security situation breaks down.
After the bombing of the UN HQ in Baghdad in 2003, security officials in New York are taking no chances. But senior UNMIK officials say that this would give the worst possible message to Kosovo’s population at a time when crucial progress is being made towards possible talks on the province’s future independence.
A cross-section of mostly employed, educated and politically moderate Kosovo Albanians questioned over the last ten days explained why the UN mission in Kosovo is so unpopular.
The personal popularity of Mr Jessen-Petersen is on the up because he is seen as straight-talking and is pushing forward the agenda on the province’s independence. But the mission itself is seen as untrustworthy, aloof, corrupt, subject to a separate set of laws from Kosovars, and responsible for the political limbo in which Kosovo has remained since 1999.
UN security council resolution 1244, which has mandated the UN and NATO’s presence in and administration of Kosovo from June 1999 onwards, specifies that the former Yugoslav province will remain part of Serbia and Montenegro until its final status is agreed.
The lack of political resolution has meant that the main, and justified bugbear of Kosovars is the parlous state of the economy, which means few jobs, low international investment, high crime, and unemployment running at between 30 per cent and 55 per cent.
Suspicious of state apparatuses, Albanians see most international and local institutions as corrupt, regardless of evidence.
But in the western Balkans, where perception is king, each incident can be blown out of all proportion by suspicious and violence-prone extremists of any ethnicity.
Dance fever reaches Albania - BBC
By Kieran Cooke
BBC News, Tirana
Since the downfall of communism in the early 1990s, Albanians have been struggling to rebuild their country. But many of them have also been turning their skills to some interesting pursuits.
Ballroom dancing is a popular pursuit right across the world
There was a problem finding the dancing school among Tirana's maze of streets.
My Albanian is rudimentary to say the least.
I went to a brightly lit door.
"Dancing?" I asked, idiotically miming a waltz round the room with an imaginary partner.
My audience did not quite conform to images of the dance floor.
They bulged out of tracksuits. One man, with a "Who is this foreign fool?" type of look etched on his face, had a large head which flowed into a barrel-like frame.
Instead of the dance school, I had blundered into a gym for weightlifting, a sport in which Albania excels.
Only the day before, I had my hand crunched by a former prime minister, once a middleweight champion he proudly told me.
Then, I heard it.
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha.
Monika Spahivogli is an Albanian entrepreneur, with that kind of "can do" spirit that does not see obstacles, only opportunities.
Ballroom dancing
A few years ago, at a time when Albania's economy was on its knees, she decided to open a shop selling local organic products.
Madness, people said, how can a population which has to struggle to find the bare minimum to eat be interested in such things?
Yet the project has succeeded. Now, Monika has moved on to another scheme, running Tirana's first post-communist ballroom dance school.
For nearly half a century, in the years after World War II, Albania's three million people were virtually isolated from the outside world.
Enver Hoxha, the communist dictator who based his ruthless rule on paranoia and stern self sufficiency, was not one to allow such bourgeois activities as Western style dancing.
Ledio, the young dance teacher, insists that I try.
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. My timing is off, my rhythm clumsy.
"Just let yourself go," says Ledio.
I collide with my own reflection in one of the giant mirrors.
Monika, the dance school owner, says that in the days of Hoxha, Moscow influenced ballet and opera in Albania was of a high standard.
"But this sort of dancing, the foxtrot, the quick step, and certainly things like the tango, were strictly forbidden."
Restrictions
That was not all that was not allowed under the old regime.
Albania has been trying to rebuild itself since communist rule ended
One of the leaders of a group of students who helped overthrow the communists told the story of his love for jazz.
The former student, now the mayor of Tirana, said that he would cower beneath the bedclothes at night listening to foreign radio stations, an activity punishable by a long stretch in a labour camp.
He became fascinated by the saxophone. Yet, as such instruments were considered to be an evil influence and were banned, he had never seen one.
"Then we heard of a friend who had a saxophone. It was hidden at the bottom of an old trunk belonging to his grandmother," he said.
"It was like a top secret operation. One of us stood guard outside while the rest went up to the apartment. The trunk was opened and there was a smell of camphor and mothballs."
Albania does not exactly receive a good press internationally
"A crinkly wedding dress was taken out. We inched forward and peered down and there, shining and so elegant, was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
"We didn't touch the saxophone, we certainly didn't attempt to play it. But that moment will be etched on my mind forever."
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. I am on the dance floor again. I manage one round, two.
"Yes, yes," says Ledio, the teacher. "It is much better. Be natural. Let your body go loose."
Albania does not exactly receive a good press internationally.
As well as the activities of an increasingly well organised and ruthless Albanian mafia in Europe and elsewhere, there is continuing corruption in the country, some of it at a very high level.
Education
Yet there is another side to all this. Albanians are very resourceful and many are highly skilled.
Some, after years overseas, are returning to try and rebuild their country. One thing not lacking under the old Hoxha regime was education, particularly in technical subjects.
My translator, she speaks four languages, is one of the hundreds of trained agronomists from the old times, once involved in a thriving market garden industry.
In the mid-1980s there were only about 3,000 cars in the whole country, and those who wanted to drive had to study for two years, full-time.
They had to learn how to take an engine apart and put it together again. Hence, Albanians have great mechanical skills, and to visitors they are extraordinarily hospitable.
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. One more time round the dance floor.
In the old days, long before Enver Hoxha, in the time of King Zog, Albania's last monarch, Tirana was famous for its glamorous parties, a place where Europe's glitterati would gather to dance the night away.
Now the old dances are coming back.
"Slowly," says Monika, "Albania is recovering, and getting back its soul."
BBC News, Tirana
Since the downfall of communism in the early 1990s, Albanians have been struggling to rebuild their country. But many of them have also been turning their skills to some interesting pursuits.
Ballroom dancing is a popular pursuit right across the world
There was a problem finding the dancing school among Tirana's maze of streets.
My Albanian is rudimentary to say the least.
I went to a brightly lit door.
"Dancing?" I asked, idiotically miming a waltz round the room with an imaginary partner.
My audience did not quite conform to images of the dance floor.
They bulged out of tracksuits. One man, with a "Who is this foreign fool?" type of look etched on his face, had a large head which flowed into a barrel-like frame.
Instead of the dance school, I had blundered into a gym for weightlifting, a sport in which Albania excels.
Only the day before, I had my hand crunched by a former prime minister, once a middleweight champion he proudly told me.
Then, I heard it.
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha.
Monika Spahivogli is an Albanian entrepreneur, with that kind of "can do" spirit that does not see obstacles, only opportunities.
Ballroom dancing
A few years ago, at a time when Albania's economy was on its knees, she decided to open a shop selling local organic products.
Madness, people said, how can a population which has to struggle to find the bare minimum to eat be interested in such things?
Yet the project has succeeded. Now, Monika has moved on to another scheme, running Tirana's first post-communist ballroom dance school.
For nearly half a century, in the years after World War II, Albania's three million people were virtually isolated from the outside world.
Enver Hoxha, the communist dictator who based his ruthless rule on paranoia and stern self sufficiency, was not one to allow such bourgeois activities as Western style dancing.
Ledio, the young dance teacher, insists that I try.
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. My timing is off, my rhythm clumsy.
"Just let yourself go," says Ledio.
I collide with my own reflection in one of the giant mirrors.
Monika, the dance school owner, says that in the days of Hoxha, Moscow influenced ballet and opera in Albania was of a high standard.
"But this sort of dancing, the foxtrot, the quick step, and certainly things like the tango, were strictly forbidden."
Restrictions
That was not all that was not allowed under the old regime.
Albania has been trying to rebuild itself since communist rule ended
One of the leaders of a group of students who helped overthrow the communists told the story of his love for jazz.
The former student, now the mayor of Tirana, said that he would cower beneath the bedclothes at night listening to foreign radio stations, an activity punishable by a long stretch in a labour camp.
He became fascinated by the saxophone. Yet, as such instruments were considered to be an evil influence and were banned, he had never seen one.
"Then we heard of a friend who had a saxophone. It was hidden at the bottom of an old trunk belonging to his grandmother," he said.
"It was like a top secret operation. One of us stood guard outside while the rest went up to the apartment. The trunk was opened and there was a smell of camphor and mothballs."
Albania does not exactly receive a good press internationally
"A crinkly wedding dress was taken out. We inched forward and peered down and there, shining and so elegant, was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
"We didn't touch the saxophone, we certainly didn't attempt to play it. But that moment will be etched on my mind forever."
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. I am on the dance floor again. I manage one round, two.
"Yes, yes," says Ledio, the teacher. "It is much better. Be natural. Let your body go loose."
Albania does not exactly receive a good press internationally.
As well as the activities of an increasingly well organised and ruthless Albanian mafia in Europe and elsewhere, there is continuing corruption in the country, some of it at a very high level.
Education
Yet there is another side to all this. Albanians are very resourceful and many are highly skilled.
Some, after years overseas, are returning to try and rebuild their country. One thing not lacking under the old Hoxha regime was education, particularly in technical subjects.
My translator, she speaks four languages, is one of the hundreds of trained agronomists from the old times, once involved in a thriving market garden industry.
In the mid-1980s there were only about 3,000 cars in the whole country, and those who wanted to drive had to study for two years, full-time.
They had to learn how to take an engine apart and put it together again. Hence, Albanians have great mechanical skills, and to visitors they are extraordinarily hospitable.
Cha, cha, - cha, cha, cha. One more time round the dance floor.
In the old days, long before Enver Hoxha, in the time of King Zog, Albania's last monarch, Tirana was famous for its glamorous parties, a place where Europe's glitterati would gather to dance the night away.
Now the old dances are coming back.
"Slowly," says Monika, "Albania is recovering, and getting back its soul."
Two elderly Serbs beaten up in Kosovo
An elderly Serb couple were assaulted and severely injured on Monday by unknown attackers in their village in the northwest of Kosovo, police and medical sources in Kosovo said.
The Serbian agency SRNA said the attackers were "a gang of Albanians", though there was no independent confirmation. Attacks on minority Serbs by ethnic Albanians - and vice versa - have triggered cycles of revenge in the past.
The victims were identified as Nedeljko and Nevenka Vucic, aged 71 and 73. They were taken to a Serb hospital on the northern side of the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica.
"Nedeljko had concussion and injuries caused by sharp and blunt objects. His head was severely injured, his ribs were broken. Surgery was necessary for his lungs," doctor Aleksandar Bozovic told Reuters.
"His right ear was cut off and he was stabbed with a metal object in the spine," Bozovic said.
"Nevenka has several cuts on her head and severe injuries to the chest caused by stabs and blows. Her life is endangered. She will undergo further surgery at 2 p.m.," he added.
There was no independent account of the injuries sustained by the couple.
Monday's attack coincided with a visit to Belgrade by Kosovo U.N. governor Soren Jessen-Petersen to encourage dialogue between Serbs and Albanians on Kosovo's future. Serbia says the Albanian demand for independence is out of the question.
Serbia's independent Beta agency said the attack took place in the ethnically mixed village of Crkolez, in Istok municipality. The old couple had stayed on alone after all four of their children left to find refuge in central Serbia.
The U.N. has run Kosovo as a de facto protectorate since mid 1999, when Serbian security forces were expelled after 11 weeks of NATO bombing to compel an end to what the alliance said was a ruthless war against Kosovo Albanian guerrillas.
The Serbian agency SRNA said the attackers were "a gang of Albanians", though there was no independent confirmation. Attacks on minority Serbs by ethnic Albanians - and vice versa - have triggered cycles of revenge in the past.
The victims were identified as Nedeljko and Nevenka Vucic, aged 71 and 73. They were taken to a Serb hospital on the northern side of the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica.
"Nedeljko had concussion and injuries caused by sharp and blunt objects. His head was severely injured, his ribs were broken. Surgery was necessary for his lungs," doctor Aleksandar Bozovic told Reuters.
"His right ear was cut off and he was stabbed with a metal object in the spine," Bozovic said.
"Nevenka has several cuts on her head and severe injuries to the chest caused by stabs and blows. Her life is endangered. She will undergo further surgery at 2 p.m.," he added.
There was no independent account of the injuries sustained by the couple.
Monday's attack coincided with a visit to Belgrade by Kosovo U.N. governor Soren Jessen-Petersen to encourage dialogue between Serbs and Albanians on Kosovo's future. Serbia says the Albanian demand for independence is out of the question.
Serbia's independent Beta agency said the attack took place in the ethnically mixed village of Crkolez, in Istok municipality. The old couple had stayed on alone after all four of their children left to find refuge in central Serbia.
The U.N. has run Kosovo as a de facto protectorate since mid 1999, when Serbian security forces were expelled after 11 weeks of NATO bombing to compel an end to what the alliance said was a ruthless war against Kosovo Albanian guerrillas.
Sheet with names of crime suspects placed in front of UNMIK HQ
Outraged by the fact that local and international authorities are not seriously addressing the issue of missing persons and arrest of suspects for the massacre of 122 Albanians in Krusha e Madhe in 1999, activists of March 26th Association with the support of the Kosovo Action Network have placed in front of UNMIK headquarters in Prishtina a white sheet with the names of crime suspects for the massacre. The list includes 56 names of those allegedly responsible for carrying out and participating in the massacre in 1999.
Agron Limani, leader of March 26th Association, told Koha Ditore that villagers of Krusha e Vogel even know the names of those that carried out the massacre. ‘However, nothing has been done to punish or prosecute any of them,’ he added.
Limani also said that Krusha e Vogel provided sufficient evidence to UNMIK Pillar I to file an indictment against the perpetrators of the massacre, but added this hasn’t happened so far. In his opinion, justice in Kosovo has failed and for this UNMIK and Pillar I bear the greatest share of responsibility.
Agron Limani, leader of March 26th Association, told Koha Ditore that villagers of Krusha e Vogel even know the names of those that carried out the massacre. ‘However, nothing has been done to punish or prosecute any of them,’ he added.
Limani also said that Krusha e Vogel provided sufficient evidence to UNMIK Pillar I to file an indictment against the perpetrators of the massacre, but added this hasn’t happened so far. In his opinion, justice in Kosovo has failed and for this UNMIK and Pillar I bear the greatest share of responsibility.
Jessen-Petersen remains in Kosovo at least until autumn this year
Zëri reports on the front page that now it has been made public that SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen is one of the most serious candidates for the post of UNHCR chief. However, sources close to the UNMIK chief told the paper that the procedure of appointing the head of UNHCR takes months. The new head of this organization will most probably not start work before October or November this year. According to this fact, even if he gets this post, Jessen-Petersen will remain in Kosovo at least until October.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
ALBANIA STANDS WITH U.S. IN IRAQ - The Washington Times
By Fatos Tarifa
-----------------------------------------------------------
The announcement several days ago Albania -- a small country with limited resources -- was sending an additional 50 well-trained troops to Iraq came as a surprise to some observers. But it really should not have surprised anyone.
Albania was one of only four countries to send combat troops during the operation "Iraqi Freedom." Albania is probably the most pro-American country on Earth. It showed its support of the United States early, when it initially sent 70 commandos to join the Coalition of the Willing's effort to bring peace, stability and free elections to Iraq. These new troops bring to a total of 120 Albanian soldiers serving in Iraq.
From a country with only 3.5 million people, the troops -- the flower of Albania's youth -- represent the best Albania has to offer. Why does Albania do this when it could have avoided President Bush's call for support, or when it could have dropped out as others have done when the going got tough? The answer is not difficult to find. If you believe in freedom, you believe in fighting for it. If you believe in fighting for freedom, you believe in America.
Unlike people in other countries in Europe and elsewhere, the Albanian people have not forgotten what it is like to live under tyranny and repression. The Albanians for more than 40 years were held in thrall by the repressive forces of the communists, living like prisoners without rights in their own country. It was to the United States that freedom-loving Albanians looked for inspiration during those dark years, and the Americans have not let us down.
"We Albanians are a nation of freedom fighters who know something about living under oppression," Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano wrote in a letter to President Bush. "That is why we wholeheartedly support the American-led effort to free the people of Iraq. And though we are a small country with a small military, we are proud to stand side by side with our allies in the fight to end the reign of terror in Baghdad."
Europe is a small place and it is hard not to run into history there. It is also hard to avoid the historic contributions of the United States in the defense of freedom and liberty on the Continent. There are cemeteries throughout Europe -- in France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg -- containing the remains of American soldiers who died in battle to free Europe in two world wars.
Although it is not fashionable to talk about it, the face of Europe would indeed be much different today were it not for the Americans who died storming the Normandy beaches.
Were it not for the Americans, there is a good chance there would be no France, nor a United Kingdom nor a Belgium, as we know them today. Were it not for the United States it also is very possible no Balkan countries would be free.
Upon committing Albania to the Coalition of the Willing, Prime Minister Nano urged his fellow European leaders to visit Normandy "to see for themselves what the United States has been willing to undertake in the name of freedom. We should all visit Normandy. We should pay homage to those brave Americans who stormed ashore at Omaha Beach and gave their lives for the freedom of others. The wonder of it is that the Americans are willing to do it again," Mr. Nano said.
And of course, it was the U.S.-led effort of NATO to rein in Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic and his ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo that proved to the world that, in the name of freedom, the United States was willing to fight for the freedom of the oppressed, regardless of religious belief.
So it is with Iraq. The importance of the American-led effort to liberate Iraq and establish a democratic government for the first time in this country's history cannot be underestimated. It is not the first time the United States has faced suicide bombers trapped in a cult of death. The Japanese kamikazes sought to do to the Americans toward the end of World War II what the terrorists are attempting in Iraq today. The kamikazes failed then, the terrorists will fail now. Japan became a democracy and so will Iraq.
The difference between the United States and the Islamic terrorists is this: The terrorists export death. The Americans export freedom.
The surprise is not in Albania's decision to send more troops to fight for freedom in Iraq. The surprise would have been if Albania did not.
Fatos Tarifa is the ambassador of Albania to the United States.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The announcement several days ago Albania -- a small country with limited resources -- was sending an additional 50 well-trained troops to Iraq came as a surprise to some observers. But it really should not have surprised anyone.
Albania was one of only four countries to send combat troops during the operation "Iraqi Freedom." Albania is probably the most pro-American country on Earth. It showed its support of the United States early, when it initially sent 70 commandos to join the Coalition of the Willing's effort to bring peace, stability and free elections to Iraq. These new troops bring to a total of 120 Albanian soldiers serving in Iraq.
From a country with only 3.5 million people, the troops -- the flower of Albania's youth -- represent the best Albania has to offer. Why does Albania do this when it could have avoided President Bush's call for support, or when it could have dropped out as others have done when the going got tough? The answer is not difficult to find. If you believe in freedom, you believe in fighting for it. If you believe in fighting for freedom, you believe in America.
Unlike people in other countries in Europe and elsewhere, the Albanian people have not forgotten what it is like to live under tyranny and repression. The Albanians for more than 40 years were held in thrall by the repressive forces of the communists, living like prisoners without rights in their own country. It was to the United States that freedom-loving Albanians looked for inspiration during those dark years, and the Americans have not let us down.
"We Albanians are a nation of freedom fighters who know something about living under oppression," Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano wrote in a letter to President Bush. "That is why we wholeheartedly support the American-led effort to free the people of Iraq. And though we are a small country with a small military, we are proud to stand side by side with our allies in the fight to end the reign of terror in Baghdad."
Europe is a small place and it is hard not to run into history there. It is also hard to avoid the historic contributions of the United States in the defense of freedom and liberty on the Continent. There are cemeteries throughout Europe -- in France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg -- containing the remains of American soldiers who died in battle to free Europe in two world wars.
Although it is not fashionable to talk about it, the face of Europe would indeed be much different today were it not for the Americans who died storming the Normandy beaches.
Were it not for the Americans, there is a good chance there would be no France, nor a United Kingdom nor a Belgium, as we know them today. Were it not for the United States it also is very possible no Balkan countries would be free.
Upon committing Albania to the Coalition of the Willing, Prime Minister Nano urged his fellow European leaders to visit Normandy "to see for themselves what the United States has been willing to undertake in the name of freedom. We should all visit Normandy. We should pay homage to those brave Americans who stormed ashore at Omaha Beach and gave their lives for the freedom of others. The wonder of it is that the Americans are willing to do it again," Mr. Nano said.
And of course, it was the U.S.-led effort of NATO to rein in Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic and his ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo that proved to the world that, in the name of freedom, the United States was willing to fight for the freedom of the oppressed, regardless of religious belief.
So it is with Iraq. The importance of the American-led effort to liberate Iraq and establish a democratic government for the first time in this country's history cannot be underestimated. It is not the first time the United States has faced suicide bombers trapped in a cult of death. The Japanese kamikazes sought to do to the Americans toward the end of World War II what the terrorists are attempting in Iraq today. The kamikazes failed then, the terrorists will fail now. Japan became a democracy and so will Iraq.
The difference between the United States and the Islamic terrorists is this: The terrorists export death. The Americans export freedom.
The surprise is not in Albania's decision to send more troops to fight for freedom in Iraq. The surprise would have been if Albania did not.
Fatos Tarifa is the ambassador of Albania to the United States.
Intimidation fears over alleged crimes
CHRISTIAN JENNINGS
IN PRISTINA
FOUR Albanian families whose relatives were alleged victims of war crimes with which Kosovo’s former prime minister has been charged, have denied that he was involved in their killings.
International officials in the former Yugoslav province fear they may have been subjected to intimidation and that it may hinder the possibility of convicting former premier Ramush Haradinaj.
Haradinaj, 36, has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, with 37 charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the rules and customs of war.
Each charge potentially carries a life sentence, and Haradinaj is in detention in the Hague, having given himself up voluntarily on 8 March.
Four key counts of murder and unlawful detention in his indictment are among those which refer to alleged killings of Kosovo Albanians in 1998, when Haradinaj was a senior commander in the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army fighting against Serb forces.
In four of the counts in the ICTY indictment - a public document - Haradinaj is charged, along with two co-defendants, of killing ethnic Albanians Safet Kuqi, Isuf Hoxha and Hajrrlluah Gashi, and kidnapping Fadil Fazliu.
Reports have surfaced this month in the Pristina media, including the pro-KLA Epoka e Re newspaper, in which relatives of the victims give wildly differing accounts of what happened to the dead men.
The ICTY indictment says that Haradinaj killed Isuf Hoxha and Hajrlluah Gashi after kidnapping them. Their families claim Serbian forces killed the men and that they are now ready to testify at the ICTY in defence of Kosovo’s former prime minister.
The family of Safet Kuqi now denies their father was killed by anybody connected to the KLA.
IN PRISTINA
FOUR Albanian families whose relatives were alleged victims of war crimes with which Kosovo’s former prime minister has been charged, have denied that he was involved in their killings.
International officials in the former Yugoslav province fear they may have been subjected to intimidation and that it may hinder the possibility of convicting former premier Ramush Haradinaj.
Haradinaj, 36, has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, with 37 charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the rules and customs of war.
Each charge potentially carries a life sentence, and Haradinaj is in detention in the Hague, having given himself up voluntarily on 8 March.
Four key counts of murder and unlawful detention in his indictment are among those which refer to alleged killings of Kosovo Albanians in 1998, when Haradinaj was a senior commander in the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army fighting against Serb forces.
In four of the counts in the ICTY indictment - a public document - Haradinaj is charged, along with two co-defendants, of killing ethnic Albanians Safet Kuqi, Isuf Hoxha and Hajrrlluah Gashi, and kidnapping Fadil Fazliu.
Reports have surfaced this month in the Pristina media, including the pro-KLA Epoka e Re newspaper, in which relatives of the victims give wildly differing accounts of what happened to the dead men.
The ICTY indictment says that Haradinaj killed Isuf Hoxha and Hajrlluah Gashi after kidnapping them. Their families claim Serbian forces killed the men and that they are now ready to testify at the ICTY in defence of Kosovo’s former prime minister.
The family of Safet Kuqi now denies their father was killed by anybody connected to the KLA.
Serbian PM's aide sees conditional independence as most Kosovars can hope for
The Serbian prime minister's adviser Vladeta Jankovic has said that Kosovo, in the best case scenario for the Albanians, could get conditional independence in the form of some kind of a protectorate.
Jankovic told today's issue of Vecernje novosti that it was not realistic to expect international recognition of full independence for Kosovo under the present circumstances, as this would be a dangerous precedent.
"It is in our interest that everyone be aware of the consequences of such a move for the stability of the region," Jankovic said in response to a question about whether he had the impression that the international community's stand on the Kosovo issue had changed somewhat.
He added that the Albanians "will soon have to hear that there will be no full independence in the near future", adding that "that moment will be fraught with danger".
"It seems to me that the most they can hope for is conditional independence in the form of some kind of protectorate," Jankovic said. [Passage omitted]
Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 0059 gmt 27 Mar 05
Jankovic told today's issue of Vecernje novosti that it was not realistic to expect international recognition of full independence for Kosovo under the present circumstances, as this would be a dangerous precedent.
"It is in our interest that everyone be aware of the consequences of such a move for the stability of the region," Jankovic said in response to a question about whether he had the impression that the international community's stand on the Kosovo issue had changed somewhat.
He added that the Albanians "will soon have to hear that there will be no full independence in the near future", adding that "that moment will be fraught with danger".
"It seems to me that the most they can hope for is conditional independence in the form of some kind of protectorate," Jankovic said. [Passage omitted]
Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 0059 gmt 27 Mar 05
Serbia-Montenegro minister, UNMIK head discuss Kosovo status, Serb protection
Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said after a discussion with UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo [UNMIK] chief Soeren Jessen-Petersen that the implementation of democratic standards in Kosovo had to imply a European degree of protection for the rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians, repair of demolished churches and monasteries, and decentralization of power.
"The essence of solutions for Kosovo lies in the formula: `more than autonomy, less than independence'. In dialogue with the Albanians and the international community, we will find a name adequate for this essence [of the formula], but we insist on the unalterability of the names of Serbia-Montenegro state borders with Macedonia and Albania," Draskovic said, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
The statement added that Draskovic and Jessen-Petersen had agreed that "it was in the interest of Kosovo Serbs to participate in working groups and Kosovo institutions".
"The essence of solutions for Kosovo lies in the formula: `more than autonomy, less than independence'. In dialogue with the Albanians and the international community, we will find a name adequate for this essence [of the formula], but we insist on the unalterability of the names of Serbia-Montenegro state borders with Macedonia and Albania," Draskovic said, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
The statement added that Draskovic and Jessen-Petersen had agreed that "it was in the interest of Kosovo Serbs to participate in working groups and Kosovo institutions".
Aide to Serbian PM says Belgrade "yet to take" position on new Kosovo premier
An aide to the prime minister of Serbia [Vojislav Kostunica], Misa Djurkovic, has said that [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK chief Soeren] Jessen-Petersen came to Belgrade to revive the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue. Djurkovic said that the main topic of the talks would be to set in motion the so-called Vienna process, that is, technical dialogues dealing with four groups of issues: energy, return [of displaced people], missing persons and transport.
[Djurkovic] The issue of decentralization will also be discussed. We will see where we are now, and whether there has been any progress on either side. Finally, what the prime minister will also insist on is the return of displaced and exiled persons as definitely the most important issue so far as the Serbian side is concerned, because any other issue makes no sense unless a serious and significant return of the Serb and other non-Albanian population to Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] finally starts to take place.
[Announcer] Misa Djurkovic said that the Serbian government had not yet taken a position on Kosovo's new prime minister, Bajram Kosumi.
[Djurkovic] The relationship towards Kosumi and the new government is something which Belgrade is yet to take a position on. The other important thing to emphasize here is that, definitely, by removing [former Kosovo prime minister Ramush] Haradinaj as the chief obstacle, this will be the year [2005] when direct contacts between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanian representatives will begin one way or another, in one form or another.
[Djurkovic] The issue of decentralization will also be discussed. We will see where we are now, and whether there has been any progress on either side. Finally, what the prime minister will also insist on is the return of displaced and exiled persons as definitely the most important issue so far as the Serbian side is concerned, because any other issue makes no sense unless a serious and significant return of the Serb and other non-Albanian population to Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] finally starts to take place.
[Announcer] Misa Djurkovic said that the Serbian government had not yet taken a position on Kosovo's new prime minister, Bajram Kosumi.
[Djurkovic] The relationship towards Kosumi and the new government is something which Belgrade is yet to take a position on. The other important thing to emphasize here is that, definitely, by removing [former Kosovo prime minister Ramush] Haradinaj as the chief obstacle, this will be the year [2005] when direct contacts between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanian representatives will begin one way or another, in one form or another.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Kosovo pushes for independence six years after ethnic slaughter
CHRISTIAN JENNINGS
IN PRISTINA
SIX years after Nato’s tanks rolled into Pristina to halt the ethnic killings in the last Balkans conflict, Kosovo is finally preparing for the Holy Grail of full independence.
Kosovo has been in political limbo under UN protection since June 1999, but its government estimates that it could be on track for initial talks on autonomy this summer.
In a best-case scenario, say international officials, this could lead to some form of self-determination for the war-torn former Yugoslav province by the end of next year.
But the road to full sovereignty will not be smooth. Before the so-called "final status" of Kosovo can be discussed, the UN-administered province must fulfil a series of internationally decreed standards in such areas as democratic government, the economy and rule of law.
The most pressing issue to be resolved will be guarantees that the province will not slide back into violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
Once Kosovo’s international overseers from the UN deem these standards to have been attained, talks on final status could begin this summer.
Avni Arifi is one of the key officials in Kosovo’s new government working towards the goal. Sitting in a smoky coffee bar in the centre of Kosovo’s regional capital Avni, the sharp-suited ethnic Albanian leans forward conspiratorially: "By June this year we’re convinced that we’ll have 90% of the priority standards completed," he says.
"By fulfilling standards we’re convincing the international community that we’re a functioning multi-ethnic government. We’re doing as much as possible to remove Kosovo from Western TV screens as a place of suffering."
The "priority standards" that Avni and his government colleagues are working on include such contentious areas as the economy, rule of law and functioning democratic institutions.
One of the more tricky ones is that of freedom of movement for the province’s benighted and embittered ethnic minorities, such as the roughly 100,000 Serbs who stayed after 1999.
Kosovo has been administered as a UN protectorate since June 1999, when a 78-day Nato bombing campaign brought an end to the ethnocidal rampages of former Serb president Slobodan Milosevic’s soldiers and policemen.
Up to 11,000 people, mainly ethnic Albanians, were killed and some 3,000 are still registered as missing.
Since 1999, hundreds of Serbs and other ethnic minorities have been killed or attacked in a campaign of reverse ethnic cleansing carried out by extremist Albanians.
A succession of UN proconsuls and tens of thousands of Nato troops have administered and controlled the tiny chaotic aspirant statelet, a third of the size of Wales, stuck in between Albania, Serbia and Macedonia.
UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which mandated the entry of Nato and the UN after the Serbs were forced out in June 1999, decrees that the province still remains part of Serbia and Montenegro.
Kosovo has thus been in political limbo since 1999, and the standards issue is the one which will break the deadlock and should lead to its hoped-for independence.
It has motivated Albanians like Avni Arifi who are at the vanguard of Kosovo’s striving for self-determination.
Last week a new prime minister, Bajram Kosumi, was appointed. He replaced Ramush Haradinaj, a colourful and charismatic ethnic Albanian politician who had been a rebel commander in the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army in the fight against the Serbs in 1998-1999.
Haradinaj was considered a war hero by many Albanians, but his alleged behaviour during the war against a variety of Serbs, Albanians and gypsies led to him being indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague.
Haradinaj gave himself up to the Tribunal earlier this month, and much to the relief of Nato and the UN, an expected violent reaction to his departure did not materialise.
"There are grounds for optimism as we move forward," said Soren Jessen-Petersen, Kosovo’s no-nonsense and popular UN proconsul, last week.
Addressing the North Atlantic Council, Nato’s governing body, in Brussels, Jessen-Petersen stressed the fragility of the situation in Kosovo as it teeters its way towards self-determination.
"A series of security incidents highlights the essential volatility of the situation in Kosovo, and the readiness to resort to violence by those still blocking progress."
This resorting to violence was illustrated in typically direct form on the streets of Pristina early on the morning of March 15, when a roadside bomb exploded next to a motorcade carrying Kosovo’s president, Ibrahim Rugova.
The president was not hurt, but the incident illustrated the ease with which those intent on destabilising Kosovo could do so.
However optimistic officials like Avni Arifi are, other obstacles stand in the way of Kosovo’s bid for statehood.
The UN’s Jessen-Petersen says that "standards implementation is proceeding by and large without delay", but many problems remain to be dealt with. He cites "economic stagnation and rampant unemployment" as threats to political stability.
Although Jessen-Petersen is popular with the Kosovo Albanian population, the UN Mission in Kosovo, also known as UNMIK, is not. It is blamed for the province’s unresolved political situation and is seen as corrupt. In reality, however, UNMIK is no more or less effective, slothful or overly bureaucratic than any other UN mission over the last 10 years.
KOSUMI'S PLEDGE
HOPES for the future of Kosovo now rest with a former student activist who was installed as prime minister last week.
Bajram Kosumi, pictured left, was sworn in as head of Kosovo’s interim government, hoping to realise a lifetime dream by leading the province to independence.
The mainly ethnic Albanian parliament of the United Nations-administered province approved Kosumi and his new cabinet by 71 votes to 36.
Kosumi succeeds Ramush Haradinaj, 36, the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander who resigned earlier this month to answer charges of war crimes at the Hague tribunal.
The government is the first since the war of 1998-99 to have no ex-guerrillas as members. Kosumi was once sentenced to 15 years in prison for organising ethnic Albanian protests over Serb rule in 1981.
Considered a moderate among Kosovo politicians, Kosumi has, in his own words, "invested my past 26 years in the creation of the state of Kosovo". He pledged recently: "We are going to achieve independence sooner than anyone else could."
IN PRISTINA
SIX years after Nato’s tanks rolled into Pristina to halt the ethnic killings in the last Balkans conflict, Kosovo is finally preparing for the Holy Grail of full independence.
Kosovo has been in political limbo under UN protection since June 1999, but its government estimates that it could be on track for initial talks on autonomy this summer.
In a best-case scenario, say international officials, this could lead to some form of self-determination for the war-torn former Yugoslav province by the end of next year.
But the road to full sovereignty will not be smooth. Before the so-called "final status" of Kosovo can be discussed, the UN-administered province must fulfil a series of internationally decreed standards in such areas as democratic government, the economy and rule of law.
The most pressing issue to be resolved will be guarantees that the province will not slide back into violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
Once Kosovo’s international overseers from the UN deem these standards to have been attained, talks on final status could begin this summer.
Avni Arifi is one of the key officials in Kosovo’s new government working towards the goal. Sitting in a smoky coffee bar in the centre of Kosovo’s regional capital Avni, the sharp-suited ethnic Albanian leans forward conspiratorially: "By June this year we’re convinced that we’ll have 90% of the priority standards completed," he says.
"By fulfilling standards we’re convincing the international community that we’re a functioning multi-ethnic government. We’re doing as much as possible to remove Kosovo from Western TV screens as a place of suffering."
The "priority standards" that Avni and his government colleagues are working on include such contentious areas as the economy, rule of law and functioning democratic institutions.
One of the more tricky ones is that of freedom of movement for the province’s benighted and embittered ethnic minorities, such as the roughly 100,000 Serbs who stayed after 1999.
Kosovo has been administered as a UN protectorate since June 1999, when a 78-day Nato bombing campaign brought an end to the ethnocidal rampages of former Serb president Slobodan Milosevic’s soldiers and policemen.
Up to 11,000 people, mainly ethnic Albanians, were killed and some 3,000 are still registered as missing.
Since 1999, hundreds of Serbs and other ethnic minorities have been killed or attacked in a campaign of reverse ethnic cleansing carried out by extremist Albanians.
A succession of UN proconsuls and tens of thousands of Nato troops have administered and controlled the tiny chaotic aspirant statelet, a third of the size of Wales, stuck in between Albania, Serbia and Macedonia.
UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which mandated the entry of Nato and the UN after the Serbs were forced out in June 1999, decrees that the province still remains part of Serbia and Montenegro.
Kosovo has thus been in political limbo since 1999, and the standards issue is the one which will break the deadlock and should lead to its hoped-for independence.
It has motivated Albanians like Avni Arifi who are at the vanguard of Kosovo’s striving for self-determination.
Last week a new prime minister, Bajram Kosumi, was appointed. He replaced Ramush Haradinaj, a colourful and charismatic ethnic Albanian politician who had been a rebel commander in the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army in the fight against the Serbs in 1998-1999.
Haradinaj was considered a war hero by many Albanians, but his alleged behaviour during the war against a variety of Serbs, Albanians and gypsies led to him being indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague.
Haradinaj gave himself up to the Tribunal earlier this month, and much to the relief of Nato and the UN, an expected violent reaction to his departure did not materialise.
"There are grounds for optimism as we move forward," said Soren Jessen-Petersen, Kosovo’s no-nonsense and popular UN proconsul, last week.
Addressing the North Atlantic Council, Nato’s governing body, in Brussels, Jessen-Petersen stressed the fragility of the situation in Kosovo as it teeters its way towards self-determination.
"A series of security incidents highlights the essential volatility of the situation in Kosovo, and the readiness to resort to violence by those still blocking progress."
This resorting to violence was illustrated in typically direct form on the streets of Pristina early on the morning of March 15, when a roadside bomb exploded next to a motorcade carrying Kosovo’s president, Ibrahim Rugova.
The president was not hurt, but the incident illustrated the ease with which those intent on destabilising Kosovo could do so.
However optimistic officials like Avni Arifi are, other obstacles stand in the way of Kosovo’s bid for statehood.
The UN’s Jessen-Petersen says that "standards implementation is proceeding by and large without delay", but many problems remain to be dealt with. He cites "economic stagnation and rampant unemployment" as threats to political stability.
Although Jessen-Petersen is popular with the Kosovo Albanian population, the UN Mission in Kosovo, also known as UNMIK, is not. It is blamed for the province’s unresolved political situation and is seen as corrupt. In reality, however, UNMIK is no more or less effective, slothful or overly bureaucratic than any other UN mission over the last 10 years.
KOSUMI'S PLEDGE
HOPES for the future of Kosovo now rest with a former student activist who was installed as prime minister last week.
Bajram Kosumi, pictured left, was sworn in as head of Kosovo’s interim government, hoping to realise a lifetime dream by leading the province to independence.
The mainly ethnic Albanian parliament of the United Nations-administered province approved Kosumi and his new cabinet by 71 votes to 36.
Kosumi succeeds Ramush Haradinaj, 36, the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander who resigned earlier this month to answer charges of war crimes at the Hague tribunal.
The government is the first since the war of 1998-99 to have no ex-guerrillas as members. Kosumi was once sentenced to 15 years in prison for organising ethnic Albanian protests over Serb rule in 1981.
Considered a moderate among Kosovo politicians, Kosumi has, in his own words, "invested my past 26 years in the creation of the state of Kosovo". He pledged recently: "We are going to achieve independence sooner than anyone else could."
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