PRISTINA (AP)--A U.N. mediator for Kosovo said Thursday his team was determined to create ways of ensuring the Serb minority remains in the province after a settlement on the province's future is reached.
Albert Rohan, the deputy U.N. envoy for the Kosovo talks, spoke at the conclusion of a three-day visit, during which he met with ethnic Albanian leaders who insist on full independence for the Serbian province, and Serb mayors who warned him of possible partition if it should gain independence.
He said his team was working to create conditions that would enable Kosovo's Serb minority to live there.
"We try to make arrangements so that people can stay," Rohan said.
"When the mayors told me that they couldn't live in independence if this were the outcome of the status process, I told them this is your decision," Rohan said.
"We cannot force you to stay, we cannot force anybody to return," he added. "What we can do is to provide conditions, where objectively we can expect the Serbs to stay here and to come back."
He said the international community rejected any partition of the province.
Rohan presented the leaders a plan on the reform of local government in Kosovo, meant to give the Serb minority a greater say in the areas where they form a majority.
The document - which contains points of agreement and compromise solutions from two rounds of talks held by the former foes - calls for maximum authority for municipalities and cooperation between them, but rejects the creation of a separate entity or an internal division of Kosovo, Rohan said.
He expressed hope that the sides would come closer to a deal on local government in April. Issues such as the status of the Serbian Orthodox churches, protection of minority rights, the division of assets and liabilities between Serbia and Kosovo and the post-status international presence will also be discussed.
Kosovo, formally still part of Serbia-Montenegro, has been under U.N. administrative control since mid-1999, when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization halted Serb forces' crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Its status is now being negotiated through U.N.-sponsored talks, which are being mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. He was appointed by the U.N. to steer the two sides toward agreement by year's end.
Rohan also expressed support for the creation of new municipalities for the ethnic minorities in the areas where they form a majority in Kosovo.
Only about 100,000 Serbs still live in Kosovo, mainly in NATO-protected enclaves. Tens of thousands of others have fled, fearing reprisal attacks, or have been forced out since the end of the war.
Western diplomats have said Kosovo's quest for independence is conditional on the province becoming a democracy that respects minority rights, with local government reform a key to that goal.
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26 comments:
UN must be clear and curt, if the Serbs threaten with leaving, so be it, nobody will cry for it. This is after all their holy land, isn't it?
Serbs moan about their "holy land" and yet they've never been a majority there.
And as soon as they lost the privileges of an apartheid system in the 90s they left like rats.
Albanians on the other hand never deserted Dardania. Despite being occupied by Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and Serbs, we're still here. This shows that Dardania is indeed a holy land to Albanians.
Mir, it took Albanians two months for 95% of them (some 850,000) to return home from excile, including countries such as America where they were granted asylum and could have led a way better life than they have done in Kosova for the last 7 years. None of them has ever claimed sanctity to the land, it's simply their home.
Serbs on the other hand claim to have their cultural, historical and spiritual identity based on Kosova but yet threaten with leaving if they don't get their way.
If Kosova is so dear to them, isn't it worth of any sacrifice?
Serbs won't leave. They will simply declare their majority portion of Kosovo independent of Albanian rule--the province will be split.
It is the UN talking about Serbs leaving in the article. Not Serbs. Serbs will stay, delcare majority areas of Kosovo independent, just like Albanians want to do now. The province will be split. And hilariously enough, the Trepca mines will be operated by Serbia once again.
Mir, you truly are an idiot. Just thought I'd let you know. You love to rant about Trepça even though not even 1% belongs to a serb or Serbia. You love to say bullcrap such as, "..Serbs should be receiving those billion dollars not yanks." How do you fucking forgett that the Chetniks damaged Trepça almost beyond repair before they fled like cowards. Also the fact that Serbia has no way made any contribution to fix or restore Trepça but here you are asking for money from it...you fucking disgust me. Only 1,000 years before you catch up from the dark ages.
Also if I missed some article about Serbia repairing Trepça please bring it up, I haven't read anything about it, and if I'm wrong I want to be right.
Every step they take, is another step closer to Hague. Kristian this is the reason why I don't read this crap. It's her opinion, I can't stop her from writing it. Her writing is extremely to the right. American voters who supported the Serbian bombing are left. The people that want illegal immigrants gone are the rights. SO she was trying really hard to have Right Wing Conservatives read her article really bad.
Hungarians call on Ahtisaari for help | 14:36 March 30 | FoNet
SUBOTICA -- Leaders from three Vojvodina Hungarian political parties have written an open letter to the UN’s Special Envoy for Kosovo status talks, Martti Ahtisaari, asking for support for Hungarian autonomy in Vojvodina.
The letter was signed by President of the Democratic Party of Vojvodina Hungarians Andras Agoston, leader of the Democratic Community of Vojvodina Hungarians Sandor Pal, and President of the Hungarian Civil Union Laslo Rac Sabo.
It reminds that these three parties delivered to Serbian senior officials a demand on December 12, 2005 for Hungarian autonomy in Vojvodina, but did not receive an answer. The demand for autonomy calls for, by the principles of reciprocity parallel with solving the Kosovo status question, securing the autonomy on an ethnic basis for Hungarians in Vojvodina.
The letter states that the basic principles of the mechanism for confirming the model of personal autonomy can be found within the Serbian Government’s plan for solving the status question of Serbs in Kosovo. According to the Hungarian leaders, it would be good for the Serbian officials to understand that solving the problems of status for regional minorities can only be done through good will, and having the readiness to reach a political consensus.
To anybody that is even 1/2 interested or even slightly cares about the truth being said, please send a letter/email to Mary Mostert (a serb propagandist and history re-writer) at this email address: mary@bannerofliberty.com and tell her what you think of her and her warped knowledge of history.
Respectfully
Ilirian
p.s. this is what I sent her:
Dear Mary,
Today I had the misfortune of having to read a couple of your articles in the www.renewameria.us website in which you mention/talk about Kosova and Albanians in general and I must tell you that after reading these articles, I felt very, very shocked, offended and to be honest quite disgusted. In fact, I haven’t experienced these feelings since the time of the war in Kosova.
Now, I have to ask you, where do you get your information from? Where or from whom have you come to learn that Albanians of the territory called Kosova are immigrants and that the territory known today as Kosova is not originally Albanian land.
I would like to believe that you have been misinformed but the writing tells me that there is something more to it. Is this true? Do you perhaps have serbian or some other sort of slavic/orthodox heritage? If you do, this all very well, but I must tell you, you do your people no service in writing such untruths. I cannot imagine that the U.S. went in to a war without, shall we say measuring things up well or without clearly identifying the ”bad guy”. I feel that you must either be of serbian or orthodox slav heritage, married to a serb or very close friends with serbs for sure. Now, am I correct in assuming so, or do I have it all wrong? Can you please tell me before I find out from other sources, because I really would like to hear it from “the horses mouth”.
This is the most biased piece of what we unfortunately have to call writing that I have ever read.
Please do get back to me.
Respectfully
Ilirian
Albanian patriot and ardent supporter of the U.S. & the U.K.
That comment on Trepca by Mir is a lie. Just the usual propaganda. First, it doesn't provide electricity to Kosova. second, it is only partially operational at this point in time and only now has the Kosovo Trust agency declared how it will be restructured. and finally, part of the problem with the mine is that it was an environmental hazard and needs (as every bit of infrastructure in the province needs) rebuilding. americans never took money from the mine or sold the rights to the mine because it is barely operational at this point.
Personally, I still think every Serb deserves a knock upside the head just for running everything into the ground like they did.
"The Dardani are entirely a savage people, so much so that they dig caves beneath dungheaps, in which they dwell"
- Strabo, Geographica, book 7, chapter 5, paragraph 7
Hahahaha, some things never change
At least the Dardani tribe was known during the antiquity. They lived where todays Kosova borders are. And that is one quote by an ancient source. There are many more quotes that show their organization, like during the wars against Macedonians (the old ones).
Where were Serbians during this period?
Hmm let me see, somewhere in the steppes of Caucasia living like nomads.
The world Slav comes from the word slave. And the old name for serbs was servians meaning servants.
So historically you were both slaves and servants...
Enjoy
Tosi
Sweden
Slav as in SLAVA. Talk about some fucking egomania. Slav comes from sclavum (latin) as in slaves of the huns.
Ooops, it seems I hit a nerve on our resident shkavell Ivana
Sorry, but it's not my fault that the truth hurts. Slav in latin comes from the word Sclavus meaning slave. During the fifth century many slavic people were sold to the romans. That's why the romans simply called them Sclavus - Slave - Slav.
And the albanian term shkavell comes from the same word, the latin sclavus. Now we use it just for chetniks like yourself.
Serbia and serbs were called servia and servians up untill 19th century. Ive seen maps and documents naming your contry Servia. The latin word for servant is servius. So hence the assumption with servians/serbians.
But you are saying instead that Serbs are the core of the Slavs in general: "The name Serbs was designation for all Slavic peoples in history".
Wow, you never seize to amaze me...
It's a great joy to discuss history with chetniks. When their distorted history finally is straighten up, they resort to threats. Just like any good chetnik like Ivana does.
But guess what slave, that doesn't work. You can threaten all yo want, I find it very amusing. Servian internet thugs are just ridicoulus.
So in the end it seems I'm educating you about your own dubious origin shkavell.
Tosi
Sweden
Yeah Ivana you are really something.
Since you don't have anything to counter my arguments you resort to petty insults.
And I never said you shouldn't be proud of your slave history. I was just making sure that you understand your true history and not some falsified and glorified saga.
About the Orthodox flag, once again you show your true ignorance. All of the Balkan nations, and also Russia took the double-headed eagle from Byzans which was the Eastern Roman Empire. That eagle symbolised the Bysans as the gateway between West and the East, hence two heads.
But the eagle itself was older than that. The Western Rome had the eagle as a symbol from the beginning (one head only). And lately there have been paintings of a Sumerian flag with a double-headed eagle. You know the Sumerians that lived 4000-5000 years ago.
All in all the Balkan eagles come from the Bysans not Montenegro. You know Bysans with the capital Constantinopel which was founded by a Illyrian/Dardanian Constantin the Great. And which was expanded by another Illyrian Justinian I.
Once again I'm being forced to educate an ignorant shkavell. That's what happens when you learn fairytales instead of real history in your servian schools.
Tosi
Sweden
Double headed eagle is not orthodox symbol. It comes from way before christianity. Here is a link http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/taxila/eagleindex.htm
Have you noticed how serbs use religion for their benefit. Here are their priests true christians indeed. Warmongers at best.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4810259667885234689&pl=true
To Ivan & Mir and any other serb ppiece of shit,
I'm orthodox christian but formost, I am ALBANIAN and very very proud of the fact. I belong to the oldest people of the Balkan peninsula with a language and culture that is one of the oldest and richest cultures in Europe.
Please stop making us Albanians puke with your bullshit. We Albanians are a very rich people (nation) we have more than 3 religions and at the same time one rich, sweet and beautiful language and one culture that STRONGLY UNITES us all and although you scum bags have tried on countless occasions over the centuries to pit us against each other, you have never succeeded. When will you primates ever give up?
Go screw yourselves and that serbian war-mongoring WHORE mary mostert.
The Patriot
Slaves or not, nomads or not, at least we didn't live in shitholes, unlike the glorious Dardanians.
Now since the shqiptars are still employing their racist theories, even calling us slaves, here's a German-Sorabian author called Rudolph Jentsch that can spoil your fun.
he says that Serbs (Srbi) got their name from a small region in Ukraine crossed by a small river called Srbica, which is also concured by Strabon saying: "...the river Kanthos/Skamandros is called Sirbis (Sirbika) by the natives."
The international name Servoi (Serbs) they have got when coming down to the Balkans they initially inhabited a town in Greece called Servia. However, in their own language they have still maintained the name Srbi.
There is also theory that name Serbs derived from the Caucasian word "ser", which means "man".
Also it is believed that the name comes from saborac, meaning "co-fighter."
The earliest mentions of Serbs and the Serbian state come from Tacitus, Pliny, Procopeus and Ptolemeus the Geographer. Especially Tacitus praises the Serbian archont Zorsines that ruled the Serbian Kingdom and the way he developed his state administration.
Note that Tacitus and Strabo lived in approximatelly the same perios, so at the time where you were digging shitholes to live, we had a well administered kingdom.
Porphyrogenitus notes that Serbs abandoned their homes due to the barbarian invasions of Alans, Huns, Avars and Albanians, the same invasions that left the area of what is today Serbia completelly deserted by their inhabitants. Those that survived from the local population of modern Serbia were either enslaved and driven further to the north or fled to Italy and northern Africa.
Welcome home Shqiptari. Do you need showels to dig your shitholes again?
I see that fairytales are still alive and kicking in serbian mindset.
First, Ivana, Constantin was not Greek. He was an Illyrian born in Naissus, a city in Dardania. His biggest idol was another Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus, also of Illyrian descent. Constantin founded the greatest city after Rome.
Too bad it hurts servians today that we have an ancient history.
Alexander the Greats mother, Olympia, was an Illyrian princess of the Molossian tribe. (Molossia can be traced to Malesia in Albanian meaning Highland). So nobody here claimed Alexander was Albanian, only that his mother was Illyrian.
Alexander himself was born in Macedonia and fought for Macedon so I would consider him a Macedonian.
Hej Cvius, don't get upset so easilly. These are not rascist theories, only history in how names are derived. Slav comes from slaves, what's the problem?
And this coming from the person who calls us siptars...
And if you want to speak about organisation, check out the Dardanian-Macedon wars. The Dardanian kingdom was well organized and functional. During that time serbs were roaming the steppes in search of booty.
And I believe you, as many other serbs, are confusing facts. It's the Slavs that invaded the Balkans not Illyrians/Albanians. You together with Avars occupied territory in the Balkans. Or should I say your Avar masters who used the slavs as their footsoldiers.
So no matter how you twist this, you cannot escape the fact that Albanians are the descendants of the Illyrians. And the servian invaders came to our lands and pillaged and burnt and stole. But no more...
Titan
This is not about anyones penis, this is about the history falsification and distortion that the serbs have been practising for centuries. It's time for the real history to come forward.
Tosi
Sweden
This is enough proof on whose side are the UN and EU. The serbs are getting away with murder,rape and a huge portion of Kosova. If any albanian has a brain they would all stop voting for the sold out LDK, AAK, ORA and PDK.
Serbia given another month to catch Mladic
Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:06 PM GMT8
By Mark John and Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union gave Serbia another month to catch Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic on Friday after U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said Belgrade's cooperation with her tribunal had improved.
The EU had threatened to call off the next round of talks on closer ties with Serbia next Wednesday if Del Ponte judged that Belgrade was dragging its feet over arresting the fugitive indicted for genocide in the 1992-1995 Bosnia war.
But EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said del Ponte had cited progress in Belgrade's efforts "which gives a credible possibility of concrete results in the weeks to come" and that the EU would review the situation again at the end of April.
"On this basis, I have decided to maintain the negotiation round next week," Rehn said after talks with Del Ponte.
He added in a written statement that Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica had pledged in a telephone call on Friday to locate, arrest and transfer Mladic "without delay".
Mladic is indicted with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims -- the worst mass killing in Europe since the end of World War Two -- and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo in which more than 11,000 people died.
Del Ponte says he is being sheltered by hardliners in Serbia, a charge Belgrade denies but which Brussels supports.
Jovan Simic, an adviser to President Boris Tadic who leads the opposition Democratic Party, welcomed the EU decision.
"We have to fulfill a lot of conditions besides the Hague condition and if the talks were suspended we would only be losing time for getting to the doorstep of the EU," he told Reuters in Belgrade.
CONTRAST
Del Ponte made no public comment after her meeting with Rehn. Asked if she was disappointed with the decision to carry on with the talks, an aide to the prosecutor said: "We believe that the EU has a tough line. We are grateful to the EU."
Friday's decision was in contrast to the EU's action last March, when it suspended the start of membership talks with Croatia over the failure to arrest and hand over a fugitive Croatian general wanted on lesser war crimes charges.
The EU agreed to open the accession negotiations in October after Del Ponte certified that Zagreb was cooperating fully with the tribunal. The wanted former general, Ante Gotovina, was captured in the Spanish Canary Islands in December.
There is recurrent speculation in Serbia that Mladic is in touch indirectly with Belgrade about possible surrender, or has already turned down state overtures to give himself up.
Talk of a Mladic handover ebbed after the EU gave Belgrade the benefit of the doubt and started negotiations on a so-called stabilisation and association agreement (SAA), the first rung on the ladder to eventual EU entry, on November 7 last year.
Analysts said the major powers were more anxious about winning Serbia's cooperation in UN-mediated talks over the future of Kosovo, the Albanian dominated province that wants to break away and become independent this year.
Commentators more recently have said the West will be careful not to overplay its hand with Belgrade following the death in a Hague detention cell this month of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic, an event which briefly rallied hardliners.
A spokeswoman for Rehn said the EU hoped the SAA talks could be completed as planned by the end of the year. But accession is not expected until 2015 at the earliest.
This is enough proof on whose side are the UN and EU. The serbs are getting away with murder,rape and a huge portion of Kosova. If any albanian has a brain they would all stop voting for the sold out LDK, AAK, ORA and PDK.
Serbia given another month to catch Mladic
Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:06 PM GMT8
By Mark John and Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union gave Serbia another month to catch Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic on Friday after U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said Belgrade's cooperation with her tribunal had improved.
The EU had threatened to call off the next round of talks on closer ties with Serbia next Wednesday if Del Ponte judged that Belgrade was dragging its feet over arresting the fugitive indicted for genocide in the 1992-1995 Bosnia war.
But EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said del Ponte had cited progress in Belgrade's efforts "which gives a credible possibility of concrete results in the weeks to come" and that the EU would review the situation again at the end of April.
"On this basis, I have decided to maintain the negotiation round next week," Rehn said after talks with Del Ponte.
He added in a written statement that Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica had pledged in a telephone call on Friday to locate, arrest and transfer Mladic "without delay".
Mladic is indicted with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims -- the worst mass killing in Europe since the end of World War Two -- and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo in which more than 11,000 people died.
Del Ponte says he is being sheltered by hardliners in Serbia, a charge Belgrade denies but which Brussels supports.
Jovan Simic, an adviser to President Boris Tadic who leads the opposition Democratic Party, welcomed the EU decision.
"We have to fulfill a lot of conditions besides the Hague condition and if the talks were suspended we would only be losing time for getting to the doorstep of the EU," he told Reuters in Belgrade.
CONTRAST
Del Ponte made no public comment after her meeting with Rehn. Asked if she was disappointed with the decision to carry on with the talks, an aide to the prosecutor said: "We believe that the EU has a tough line. We are grateful to the EU."
Friday's decision was in contrast to the EU's action last March, when it suspended the start of membership talks with Croatia over the failure to arrest and hand over a fugitive Croatian general wanted on lesser war crimes charges.
The EU agreed to open the accession negotiations in October after Del Ponte certified that Zagreb was cooperating fully with the tribunal. The wanted former general, Ante Gotovina, was captured in the Spanish Canary Islands in December.
There is recurrent speculation in Serbia that Mladic is in touch indirectly with Belgrade about possible surrender, or has already turned down state overtures to give himself up.
Talk of a Mladic handover ebbed after the EU gave Belgrade the benefit of the doubt and started negotiations on a so-called stabilisation and association agreement (SAA), the first rung on the ladder to eventual EU entry, on November 7 last year.
Analysts said the major powers were more anxious about winning Serbia's cooperation in UN-mediated talks over the future of Kosovo, the Albanian dominated province that wants to break away and become independent this year.
Commentators more recently have said the West will be careful not to overplay its hand with Belgrade following the death in a Hague detention cell this month of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic, an event which briefly rallied hardliners.
A spokeswoman for Rehn said the EU hoped the SAA talks could be completed as planned by the end of the year. But accession is not expected until 2015 at the earliest.
Bla, bla, bla....everyone seems to think that his history books are the real, but the fact is that No One knows for sure.
Something I know for sure is that Sweden is "tired to the bones" of Kosovo albanians who makes trouble. Especially in southern Sweden in cities of Ronneby and Landskrona. People are "dead tired" of them and do not want them here anymore.
I doubt very much that Kosovo will be independent. For sure.
Teddy Sweden
Dear Ms. Mostart,
Your highlighting of the following similarities is a lesson for all Americans"
Both " alien immigration" problems -- illegal Mexicans to the US, and illegal Albanians to Kosovo -- have created the same problems: no respect for their host country, violent organized crime, an enormous drain on public resources, complaints about "racism" while promoting their own "racism" against members of the host community, a birthrate that far exceeds that of their hosts -- and a claim that the land they live now live on is "really theirs and was stolen from them".
Who will bomb us,the US to save the mexicans? Maybe the albanian mafia here in the US will provide soldiers to save us.
"Illyrians = not Albanians"
and you are wondering why the word servian means slave? Tell me, no insult me, from what slurr did the word Albania come from?
"Funny how Albania isnt on that list"
Wow you are such a comedian. Why would the author or whichever organization conducted the survey pick a small country like Albania?
That would be like asking why Luxenburg wasn't picked.
"By 'real' history you mean ALBANIAN history?"
I can guarentee you that any Albanian verbal history (passing of stories/battles) are more accurate than anything that the "Serbian TRUE history" has to offer. Albanians are smart, that's why most of Albanians are bi or tri-languale. It is amazing how all Serbs bring to conversation all Albanian people when in fact this website is only for KOSOVA. When something such as a stabbing incident occurs you insult all Albanians worldwide..yet you do not see us insult or grouping you as "all slavics are criminals". Even when you take history you get very selective and love the idea to find one flaw or one evidence to insult a hole culture. Very shameful, yet I can not expect understanding because according to the pole you are the stupidest people in Europe.
"Illyrians = not Albanians
Illyrians are an extinct race.
"
C'mon now Mir, you can do better than that. You are trying to project yourself as a neutral Serb, but it seems your history is very rusty. Or maybe comming directly from the Belgrade propaganda of Serbian Academy (which is just as good as Goebbels PR-machine). I suspect the latter.
Ok Einstein, if Illyrians = Not Albanians, how do you explain Ptolemys work in the second century when he mentions an Illyrian tribe called Albanoi?
Meaning Illyrians = Albanoi = Albanians.
http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-illyrian-tribes?hl=albanoi
Check mate!
I expected better from you.
Tosi
Sweden
I don't know what book you're talking about but I can show you many more books that state Illyrians = Albanians.
First of all you have the wellknown Encyclopedia Brittanica.
But I have one better, go to your own serbian site serbianna. There you will find a book called "25 lessons in history" written by a foreign writer. There he states that Albanians are Illyrians.
And btw, don't worry, archaelogical work is being done in Kosova as we speak. In these late years they have found sites with jewelry from Dardanian site outside Prishtina and the remaints of a fortress near Artana.
So you see, work is being done in that direction.
Tosi
Sweden
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