Wednesday, April 19, 2006

INTERVIEW-UN could face new role in northern Kosovo

By Matthew Robinson
MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro, April 19 (Reuters) - The United Nations may have to extend its stay in Kosovo after a decision on an Albanian demand for independence to oversee a peaceful transition in the Serb-dominated north, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.
Gerard Gallucci, the top U.N. official in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica, said an international presence would help "coordinate relations" between Serbs in the north and the ethnic Albanian authorities in Pristina, which will run Kosovo whatever the outcome of negotiations under way in Vienna on the future of the Serbian province.
"Everyone now understands there has to be a transitional period in which the international community -- even though it may be getting out of a U.N. role south of the Ibar River -- may continue to play some similar role in the north for some period of time," the American diplomat told Reuters in an interview.
"I think the U.N. may be best equipped to play this role," he said from his office which overlooks the Ibar river dividing the town's Serbs and Albanians since a war in 1998-99 in which 10,000 Albanians were killed.
Diplomats say the Serbian province of 2 million people, run by the United Nations since 1999, will likely win independence in U.N.-led talks set to end later this year.
The main U.N. mission will bow out once a deal is in place and will be replaced by a slimmed-down European Union operation.
But at least half Kosovo's 100,000 remaining Serbs hold sway in north Mitrovica and the rocky strip of land that runs up to central Serbia. They reject the idea of being ruled from Pristina and have resisted successive U.N. efforts to reintegrate them with the rest of Kosovo.
EXODUS
The major powers say splitting the province in two, as some Serbs advocate, is not an option. They are pushing Albanians to give Serbs greater local self-government, perhaps heading off the mass exodus Serbs threaten should Kosovo split from Serbia.
Gallucci said the international community recognised the "different reality" in northern Kosovo.
Serbs enjoy a level of freedom there envied by thousands of Serbs living in scattered enclaves south of the Ibar, the target of sporadic violence. Around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks after the war.
Gallucci said some kind of international presence would have to help monitor, administer and coordinate relations between the north and Pristina during a period of transition.
The United Nations has the experience for the job and the EU may have "its hands full with the security and justice role Kosovo-wide".
"It makes sense there be some person overall with some degree of responsibility for the north, whether that person be free-standing or part of a larger mission," said Gallucci.
Mitrovica, a shadow of a once thriving mining town, has come to symbolise the ethnic division which still plagues Kosovo, seven years after NATO expelled Serb forces accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians in its war with separatist guerrillas.
Divided by the Ibar River and patrolled by French NATO troops, Mitrovica is dominated by Serbs in the north and Albanians in the south.
For Serbs, the north represents their last urban centre, linking them to the rest of Serbia. The Albanians say it is the frontline of a Serb bid to divide Kosovo, which Serbs have considered their religious heartland for the past 1,000 years.
Recent moves suggest both sides are edging towards dividing the running of the city.
"You have two incompatible views of Kosovo which then come down to incompatible views of Mitrovica," said Gallucci.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

“For as long as the Serbs will not understand and realize that they are on foreign lands and territory, they will never be in peace or have good neighboring relations with Albanians”.

Dimitrie Tucovic.

Killed by Serb Chauvinists around 1914.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Serbs areas will have the type of separation from the rest of Kosovo as Kosovo does from Serbia. Another step to partition.

Anonymous said...

If nyouthouselawyer repeats it enough times it makes it true. How a sad shitty life he must have.

Anonymous said...

I am in Albania, oops I mean Kosova.

Anonymous said...

Since serbs are unwilling to accept any plan that allows them to stay in Kosova maybe Ceku can make another plan. Say, Storm II or something of that nature.

Anonymous said...

Serbs claim if Kosova wins indepndence radicals would win in elections but as this article points out they would win today even though Kosova is administered by UNMIK.
I guess four wars arent enough.

Polls: Serbia extremists lead democrats

Apr. 20, 2006 at 1:23PM

Serbia's ultra-nationalists and former communists could oust the ruling Democrats if elections were held this week, an opinion poll indicated Thursday.
In the polls the Serbian Radical party had 38 percent, followed by the Democratic Party of Serbia's President Boris Tadic with 28 percent.
The Serbian Democratic Party of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and the Serbian Socialist Party, mostly former communists, tied for third with 7.6 percent each.
The Radical and Socialist parties, with a total of 45.6 percent support, would be able to form a coalition government and govern for four years, said officials of the Center for Free Election and Democracy, or CESID agency which sponsored the poll.
The two parties got Serbia into four ethnic wars -- against Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo -- when it was called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia -- between 1991 and 1995. The Serbs lost then all.
Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the Radicals, is currently awaiting trial on war crime charges at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague.
Slobodan Milosevic, who died of a heart attack last month while on trial in The Hague, was the leader of the Socialists.

Anonymous said...

Republic_of_Kosova dont even think of arguing with that bitch. That thing will just stick to the formula that worked for them during the war in Bosnia! Too bad we got the architect of STORM as prime minister now.

Anonymous said...

nyouthouselawyer, here bitchy, bitchy!

Anonymous said...

Hey NYlawyer or whatever-read the article below and see how your country lies to you by claiming that there are over 200,000 displaced Serbs-not even close. Man, you have been lied all your life by your government and you have became brainwashed. Wake up ass hole!



(Prishtina/Belgrade, DTT-NET.COM) – UN mission (UNMIK) has said it’s designing a new plan according to which Serb minority refugees in Serbia wishing to return could choose their places in Kosovo.

Sandra Michel, in charge of return at UNMIK told reporters in Belgrade on Tuesday that the plan aims also to create easier conditions for the return of displaced people.

UNMIK officials in Prishtina told DTT-NET.COM that the plan is part of “ongoing process for return of externally and internally displaced persons”.

But according to the latest figures of UN body for refugees the situation of returned minority communities to Kosovo is rather gray.

A monthly aupdated report by UNHCR office in Kosovo says that since 2000 year, on voluntary basses 14.648 refugees or internal displaced persons from all minority communities have returned to their homes or the new one build in Kosovo, among which 6640 are Serbs; 1596 Romas; 3951 Ashkali/Egyptians; 1343 Bosniaks; 495 Goranis and also 623 Albanians.

UN mission and Serbia authorities have been accusing each other for not helping the return of Serbs to Kosovo.

Earlier this month UNMIK chief Soren Jessen Petersen said that improvements have been made on the security for minorities but he called for more to be done. He said that primary role for building a security environment for minorities in Kosovo and successful refugee return belongs to Kosovo citizens and institutions, but at the same time he accused Belgrade for not helping the process.
Jessen Petersen said that latest calls of Belgrade on Kosovo Serbs to boycott local institutions and refuse their salaries at education and healthcare public sector “works in the opposite direction” and doesn’t help interests of integration of Serb minority into Kosovo society and as well it harm prospects of those refugees/displaced persons in Serbia willing to return.

There are conflicting figures of Kosovo Serb refugees who left to Serbia after the end of 1999 war. The German think-tank -European Stability Initiative (ESI) - said last year that there are only 65,000 displaced Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia proper - a figure that seriously challenges Belgrade's claims of close to 220,000.
According to UNMIK statistics some 100.000 Serbs are living in Kosovo.

At the moment when UNMIK announces new initiatives for the return of minorities, a Kosovo Serb politician has said that UNHCR is planning quite the contrary.

Rada Trajkovic has told Montenegrin daily ‘Dan’ that the UN refugee body is planning to evacuate some 40.000 Serbs from Kosovo, in case the territory becomes independent. But Trajkovic's statement was harshly rejected by UNHCR officials in Kosovo.

“The reported comments of Rada Trajkovic are incorrect” Myrna Brewer Flood UNHCR press officer told DTT-NET.COM.

“UNHCR does not evacuate or resettle minorities from regions of origin. UNHCR's priority is to focus on the concerns of the minorities so those who wish to return – can return - and UNHCR is working closely with other agencies for the future of Kosovo to see what can be done to improve living conditions of minorities in Kosovo,” she said.

Anonymous said...

"
There are conflicting figures of Kosovo Serb refugees who left to Serbia after the end of 1999 war. The German think-tank -European Stability Initiative (ESI) - said last year that there are only 65,000 displaced Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia proper - a figure that seriously challenges Belgrade's claims of close to 220,000.
According to UNMIK statistics some 100.000 Serbs are living in Kosovo. "


HAHA i knew it, 220,000 MY ass. Never were that many in Kosova well maybe when the Krajina criminals were transported with force down here. Kosova forever!!!!!!!!!! hahaha I love Germans.

Anonymous said...

o great ur a real think tank yourself
dumbass.
ok so who would know better?
serbia or germany?
who cares more about serbia is it serbia or germany?
ok well i think you can solve this yourself.
who has the right figures?

Anonymous said...

Germany has the right FIGURES you fucking TWAT. Serbia is making numbers up to get the worlds attention. WHo has more fucking credibility you fucking twatm a shit hole called Germany or Serbia...Also the think tank was located in Serbia it's not like they are guessing from some place in Germany..FUCKING TWAT

Anonymous said...

Here's a bit of info just for those out there that don't know what a TWAT (pronounced TWOT) means. It is a slang word for GENETALIA.

Hahahahaha

Love to all my true ALBANIAN brothers and sisters out there not the mixed up ones that should be deported to serbia.

Ilirian.

Anonymous said...

German's sided with Croatia during the break up of Yugoslavia-they hate Serbs.