BRUSSELS (AP)--Minority rights will be guaranteed in any final settlement for Kosovo, the top U.N. official in the province said Tuesday, calling on Kosovo Serbs to take an active part in shaping the province's future.
"The (ethnic Albanian) majority will have to understand they can't stabilize Kosovo if they don't recognize the right of the minority to be protected," Soren Jessen-Petersen said after meeting senior E.U. and NATO officials.
"In the status settlement there will be a provision for minority protection that can be monitored and verified" from outside, he said.
Jessen-Petersen said a federal government, based in Pristina, and a regional government for Kosovo's Serbs would be the best way to protect the rights of the Serb minority. He urged Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs to stop what he called " boycotting" the idea.
"There will be a limit to how much you can achieve in the area for the minorities if the minorities are not taking an active part in the process. As long as you continue the policy of boycott it's very difficult," he said.
Kosovo has been run by the U.N. since a 1999 NATO bombing campaign ended a Serb crackdown on independence-minded ethnic Albanian rebels.
The first round of negotiations between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and Serbian officials on the province's future status was held Feb. 20-21 in Vienna and the dispute over its future is expected to be resolved by the end of 2006.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on full independence, while the Serbs want it to remain part of Serbia.
Western diplomats have said Kosovo's quest for independence is conditional on the province becoming a democracy that respects minority rights.
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14 comments:
a Federal Government based in prishtina" said Petersen????
Since when are we a federation??
Kosova wil be a single Republic not a Federation of enteties???
He is wrongggggggggggg
I do not think for a second that Kosovo will be full independent. Its a bit of a sovereign country no matter what.
Texas Rangers
Texas Ranger,
Texas was "a bit of a sovereign country" once. And Santa Ana was less barbaric than Milosevic. I say let's put Kosova back under Serbia right after we put Texas back under Mexico.
Actually, decentralization is the best way to govern, regardless of the ethnic mix. Push government down closer to the people--in America, local governments run schools, police, fire departments, elections, libraries, street repairs and cleaning--and raise their own money to do so. Local governments are more responsive to the people's needs and people are more responsible when they know that voting for some new project also means taxes to pay for it.
Artemije should not be allowed to Return to Kosovo.. He is a two-faced liar, a scumbag... If a Bishop considers a whole nation "mujahedeens, jihadists, terrorists", no one should support him. It is weird that Albanian-bashing makes one very popular in Serbia...
Read this...
From a city of Nish, where Albanians were exterminated 128 years ago, after Congress of Berlin granted a part of Kosovo vilayet to Serbia, Rasko-Prizren Bishop Artemije said that any imposed solution for the Kosovo status question could constitute an involuntary occupation of the territory.
“If something is imposed, this should be accepted and awaited with the feeling that Kosovo is once again occupied, and every democratic nation has the right to return its occupied territory and its integrity and freedom.” Bishop Artemije said.
He said that Serbia used its right to retake Kosovo after 500 years under the Ottoman Empire.
“I do not know how the discussions will end, but I know what we must do. We have to stay loyal to the stance that there is not one hand in Serbia that would sign an agreement for the independence of Kosovo and that no one can accept that.” he said.
Ironically, the Bishop was saying this from the city of Nish, where after a solution imposed by the Congress of Berlin in 1878, thousands of Albanian households were expulsed to Kosovo.
Serbian Orthodox Church is under fire after Serb Bishops were taped blessing Serbian murderers before they executed Muslims in Bosnia.
Serbian Bishop Artemije Radosavljevic has spent time in the United States recently. His trip was a part of the nationwide Serb campaign against the independence of Kosovo. During his trip in many occasions he has labeled Kosovo Albanians as mujahedeens, jihadists, terrorists in attempts to get sympathy from the christian world.
12:34,
It is true that Artemije claimed such things in the US as reported by American media. However, I just talked to the guy that has been helping in translating and editing of a high budget documentary movie that will be released in theatres internationally in a few months. In it Fr. Sava of Visoki Decani states that neither Serbs nor Albanians are religious. It seems like Orthodox clerics are confused about this subject.
I agree that decentralization is a good thing, both for Albanians and Serbs. However, if it is done along ethnic lines it will reward non-coopoperation and ghettoization of ethnic groups. If that happens, Kosova will turn into another Bosnia and will remain an unresolved issue that radiates instability on the region.
That's the whole problem, the creation of these serb ghettos with their separate system. I mean Kosova is a small place imagine if we have these"enteties" where they use dinar, where traveland commerce is restrictedand where shadow-structuresare in charge of their security. It's not decentralization it's fiefdoms....it's like going back to the middle ages!
Its kinda wierd though to hear serbs talking about civil rights and humanity after all they did to their neighbours. Do you guys think that people forget so easily?
And Texas, US federal goverment cannot be the same with those Serbian beasts. Did you see how easily they agree with the idea.
Forget about serbia. Fully indipendent Kosaova is the only way to go.
"First of all if you do get a state, then you have to give the Serbs in KiM a feeling that this their home. Just building houses you burnd is not enough. What you wnated from Serbia, thats what you will have to give to Serbs in "if" your new state."
Ivan, you scum,
Since you are talking about rebuilding, why dont you come first to rebuid what you you burned in Kosovo. Why dont you pay first for all the destruction and the pain you coused in Kosova and than we can talk about "making serbs feel at home"
ur brothers
http://www.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,91134-bosnia_p3705,00.html
"Don't you think you sound like Hitler?"
Civijus,dont go that far. Maybe I sound like a serb to you. Why dont you see what have you done to your neighbours and than you will realise who's behaving like Hitler. You are a big piece of dirt in the European history. It was a curse to have you for neighbours.
"Since Kosovo will be yours, you pay for it, and because these Serbian houses are in Kosovo, you pay it."
You will pay for everything Civijus, because you did it. You will pay for human lives that you took in Kosova and in Bosnia.
We dont mind rebuilding Kosova, because it's our home, but you are going to pay for burning it down you bastards, because that what you are.
"So what's your point? Abolish all rights to Serbs? Treat them like slaves or an inferior race?"
We don't do tha Civijus. we are not Serbs
I am suprised you are still alive and free to comment than Civijus.
Tell me how did you survived
I'm sorry to say this but you serbs had your freedom and also independence. Now it ours , and "KOSOVA" is ours. Like it or not you could burn in hell if you don't like it. so good luck no more yugoslavia/serbia.
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