PRISTINA (AP)--Kosovo's U.N. administrator said Tuesday that talks to determine the disputed province's future should start by the end of the year.
"I do not see any gains in delaying status talks," said Soren Jessen-Petersen, the top U.N. official in the province. He said the next three months in Kosovo are the "most crucial months in this crucial year."
Kosovo has been disputed between the province's ethnic Albanian majority who want full independence, and the Serb minority and Serbia who insist the province remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia.
Talks to determine its future depend on the province's ability to meet internationally set standards on democracy, rule of law and civil rights for the Serb minority.
Another U.N. envoy, Kai Eide, who was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in June to review progress, said Monday that more work is needed to improve tense relations between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and Serbs before talks can begin.
Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. and patrolled by NATO-led peacekeepers since a 78-day alliance-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
Ethnic tensions in Kosovo remain high six years since the end of the conflict. About 100,000 minority Serbs mostly live in isolated enclaves, fearing attacks from ethnic Albanians extremists.
Jessen-Petersen said Kosovo needs to focus on four areas including minority rights, economy and reform of local government in the next few months before the U.N. can appoint an envoy to mediate between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and Serbia.
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OK, Petersen is saying more needs to be done but talks will begin in December. Eide doesn't give a date because standards have not been achieved. I doubt these two guys operate in different frequencies and would undermine each other. I'm sure Serbs are getting the whole (sad) picture from both of them directly but Albanians don't get to know about it because they need to be pushed more. They'll probably push the talks a few months to say that they are even-handed and then let the inevitable happen. If Albanians are smart, they could use this time to take off any argument Serbs might have in the discussion table.
The question of protection of Serbs in village enclaves or rather the inability of the KPS to foster a sense of security is not a problem that can be solved in the near term. But this cannot be a bar to Final Status Talks because KPS can never instill such security in the near term mostly due to the fact that is is not in Serbia's interest nor on the Kosovar Serbian's interest. What the international community and both the Albanian and Serbian communities in Kosove need to realize is that KFOR will need to stay in Kosovo for another generation to provide the guarantee of internal security. It is a good thing that Kosovo is small and only requires a few troops, so staying a long time is not that expensive.
As a Kosovar, Albanian, I want to see those Serbs protected. Whatever be the reasons they are tax payers :)
KOSSOVO IS ANCIENT SERBIAN TERRITORY, AND SHOULD REMAIN PART OF SERBIA. NO NATION IN EUROPE SHOULD OR WOULD ACCEPT SUCH A DISGRACEFUL THEFT OF PART OF THEIR ANCIENT TERRITORY, THIS IS A GRAVE INJUSTICE. THE PEOPLE WHO AIMED TO STEAL KOSSOVO FROM SERBIA THE KLA/UCK AND ALLIED GOVERNMENT ARE A PROSCRIBED TERRORIST ORGANISATION DECLARED SO BY THE CIA AND US GOVERNMENTS BEFORE THE KOSSOVO WAR, AND AS SUCH NO DEMOCRATIC JUST NATION IN THE EU OR THE WORLD SHOULD ALLOW THESE THUGS,DRUG RUNNERS,SLAVERS, GUN RUNNERS AND TERRORISTS (WHO HAVE EVEN FORCED THE MAFIA OUT OF LARGE AREAS OF ITALY BY BRUTALITY)TO STEAL PART OF A SOVEREIGN NATION.
THIS IS SERBIAN LAND, WITH SERBIAN HERITAGE, FOUGHT FOR BY SERBS AND FERTILISED WITH THE BLOOD OF THOUSANDS OF SERBS WHO HAVE FOUGHT AND DIED FOR IT OVER THE CENTURIES ONLY TO HAVE IT STOLEN BY ALBANIANS WHO SHOULD GO BACK TO ALBANIA AND BUILD THAT COUNTRY UP.WHEN SERBIA WAS OUR ALLY IN WW1, THOUSANDS OF THEIR SOLDIERS WHO HAD FOUGHT A BATTLE WERE MURDERED ON THEIR RETREAT BY ALBANIANS, WHILE TRYING TO REACH A PORT TO BE RESCUED BY THE BRITISH NAVY, REFORMED AND BROUGHT BACK TO FIGHT THE AUSTRIANS AND GERMAN ALLIES. THE KOSSOVO WAR OF RECENT YEARS IS A DISGRACE AND BRINGS SHAME ON THE US, UK AND EUROPE, FOR BETRAYING A BRAVE, HONOURABLE, HOSPITABLE PEOPLE, WHO HELPED US FIGHT FASCISM IN TWO WARS, TO AID A MOSLEM NATION, WHO HAVE NEVER DONE ANYWHERE AS MUCH TO HELP EUROPE. REMEMBER THESE SAME MOSLEMS AID THE OTHER TERRORISTS FROM AFGHANISTAN WHO ULTIMATELY ATTACKED NEW YORK. REMEMBER TOO THE AVOWED AIM OF ISLAM IS TO MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD ISLAMIC. THE SERBS ARE GUARDIANS OF THE GATES TO EUROPE, A CHRISTIAN EUROPE, WILL WE REALLY BE SO FOOLISH AS TO ALLOW THIS THREAT TO OUR FAITH.
A NATION CAN NEVER BE CONQUERED FROM WITHOUT, BUT IT CAN FROM WITHIN, THIS IS BUT THE FIRST STEP, AND TURKEY SHOULD ALSO NEVER BE ALLOWED TO BE PART OF THE EU, IT IS NOT EUROPEAN.
ALBANIA FOR ALBANIANS, SERBIA FOR SERBIANS, KOSSOVO IS SERBIAN, NOT FOR THE UN OR EU TO DECIDE. IF THIS HAPPENS NO AREA OF ANY NATION IN EUROPE IS SAFE FROM SEPERATISM, DIVIDE AND CONQUER. EUROPE BE WARNED.
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