VIENNA, May 4 (Reuters) - Serbia demanded the formal division of the flashpoint Kosovo town of Mitrovica on Thursday at fresh talks on the future of the U.N.-run province.
Aides hurried in with maps as the fourth round since direct talks began in February turned to the borders of new municipalities for the 100,000 remaining Serbs in Kosovo.
They are outnumbered in the province by two million ethnic Albanians pushing for independence from Serbia.
The shattered mining town of Mitrovica, scene of the worst clashes since the 1998-99 war, topped the bill.
The Serbs' last urban centre in Kosovo and a gateway to Serbia proper, Mitrovica has become the battleground for two opposing visions of Kosovo's future, and is seen as key to any lasting settlement.
Serb negotiators said the town should be officially divided at the Ibar River that has separated Serbs and Albanians for seven years.
"North Mitrovica should be a separate municipality, perhaps joined with Zvecan," said Serb negotiator Dusan Batakovic.
The Albanians, fearing that a separate northern Mitrovica would form the hub of a breakaway northern Kosovo, want at least some reunification.
"We believe the integration of the town will happen and local elections will bring a mayor, under which the municipality will be run in the future," said Kosovo Albanian chief negotiator Lutfi Haziri.
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces, ending the ethnic cleansing employed by Belgrade in a two-year war with Albanian separatist rebels.
COMPROMISE
As in previous rounds of talks, agreement is unlikely. The U.N. mediators led by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari say they are seeking "common ground" on technical issues before broaching the crunch question of the province's final status, possibly by July.
The meeting, which runs into Friday, became bogged down over Serb demands for 17 municipalities based on a census from before the mass Serb exodus that accompanied the end of the war.
The Albanians are offering five.
Diplomats say Ahtisaari's team will draft a compromise blueprint that will largely reflect Mitrovica's ethnic split and the reality that many Serbs do not plan to return to Kosovo.
The Albanians face pressure to give the Serbs greater local powers, as a condition of clinching their own state.
In Mitrovica, where French soldiers and U.N. police have patrolled the dividing line since 1999, the Kosovo Albanians propose the creation of two "sub-municipalities" under one joint body headed by an international administrator.
But Serbs in north Mitrovica and the strip of land running up to Serbia have resisted U.N. overtures to integrate with the rest of Kosovo. They warn the province will split in two if Kosovo wins independence, as diplomats say is likely.
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17 comments:
It is clear that Serbs are preparing for the eventual division of Kosovo along ethnic lines. I'm afraid it won't stop there, though.
I know that I will get flamed by my brother Albanians for saying this but if Kosova is to be independant then it should be willing to give the serbs the little that they ask for. I am no fan of the atrocities they commited upon our people but lets get this over with and lets get the region in order.
Artim
The problem is that they are not asking for a little but enough to destabilize Kosovo. What the Serbs really wanted was to create little Serbias throughout Kosovo, paid for by them and with their own army, police, judiciary and everything would have been subject to Serbian laws which would have made war inevitable.
Ahtissari's team was considering making Mitrovica the capital of Kosovo and that would have been the smartest and most elegant way of handling it but the political interests in Prishtina municipality would have fought tooth and nail. As it is several ministries will move to Mitro. The Roma have already begun to move to the Mahalla in Mitro and are in and around the city again which is a very good sign. Also there was a really good public debate on RTK and re-broadcast on B92 on Mitro and what people here wanted from both sides. Anybody who has not been to Mitro or knows little about the situation here now should seek to see it. People want the city as a whole again and it will be no matter what the politicians from both sides say.
There is an old saying: "Good fences make good neighbours".
Like it or not, Mitrovica is the only city in Kosovo with a sizeable Serb population left and that would not have happened without the separation. So if you really believe in cooperation you should accept the administrative separation.
Concerning ministries in Mitrovica: I think this is mainly an effort to compensate the inevitable blow when Trepca is modernised. Similar mines in Australia employ around 300 workers. Putting those ministries in Northern Mitrovica however would be just an effort to Albanise it.
Chris Blaku
Those comments are moronic. Only a dumb person could believe those ridiculous lies and absurd things.
Serbians virtually created State sponsored terrorism,
Haven't you ever heard of Iran or Syria with Hezbollah and other groups. You are nothing but a racist Serb hater.
Chris I don't think there is a point in arguing with lowlifes like Nylawyer, no matter how great your arguments are. He claims that Albanians spread propaganda yet he copies and pastes the same articles everywhere. Then again it might not be his fault as he is brainwashed Serb government to the point of no return.
Chris this is bordering on the pathological.
Do you always have to define yourself in relation to Serbia / Serbs?
Serbia created this, founded that.
Serbs have a genocidal gene.
They begin ethnic cleansing before they have exitted the womb.
Come on, if you must be a nationalist but define yourself in relation to what you see as your own people rather than constantly trying to portray your perceived enemy in a negative light.
....albanians showed the world how they wish to live with Serbs on March 17th 2004.
albanians in kosovo asked for war and you whine about it now? typical shiftar.
what matters to Europe and the world is what has happened in Kosovo since the west won the war that albanians fomented. The track record hasn't been all that great. Actually, it has been absymal, which is why that territory will be occupied by the west for generations.
"But, it's true that about 500 000 - 1 million Albanians later enter from Albania and today are living in KaM in Serb houses although they didn't even know how KaM looks like."
Talk about propaganda brain washed people-even their numbers don't make sense anymore.
Hey stupid- simple math: If 200,000 serbs left their houses in Kosova (as you claim) how in the hell are you going to fit 1 million Albanians from Albania in their place?!!!
You people are brainwashed beyond reasonable doubt....
Thaçi (not Taçi dickhead), Haradinaj & Çeku are all freedon fighters from Kosova. At no time were they ever oficial government people of the Republic of Albania (London-ian Albania as we Albanians call the borders of todays Albania, because it was at the conference of London is that the serbs and russian tricked and payed off the west into believing that more that 1/2 of the Albania's lands were serbian, Montenegran and "Macedonian" land).
So you have no argument in saying that "Albanian violence" was organised by the Albanian state. The Albanian resistance was organised by Albanian civilians-turned freedom fighters in a part of occupied Albania.
The same can in no way be said about serbs and serbia.
So go &*#@% yourself
Ilirian
Chris you are starting to lose credibility in my eyes I have to say.
What are statements like - Serbs in Kosovo never made up more than 20 percent of its population. designed to prove? This is such transparent propoganda and it really does show some kind of personal insecurity.
With this statement I have no choice but to take all of your statements with a large pinch of salt - because its a lie.
Now lets put that lie to one side. You obviously feel its important not only that Serbs are a small minority in Kosovo today but that you must prove that Serbs have always been the minority in Kosovo. Lets look at that. Why do you think this is important?
To me its hardly relevant now whether Serbs had 90 percent of the population in Kosovo in 1990 or .9 percent of the population in 1974.
Whats important in my view is that Kosovo Albanians make up the majority today. Whats also important is that non Albanian minorities be allowed to return, freedom of movement and to not experience discrimination. Even then Albanians will have nearly 90 percent majority in Kosovo.
With that large majority you dont need to try to rewrite history. You are supporting the principle that a large majority have the right to determine their own fate.
So I dont understand this constant need to portray Serbs as the bad guys, minimalising the significance of Kosovo in Serbian history, undermining Serbian suffering and maximising Albanian suffering.
Havent we moved past this stage yet. And dont in fact, given todays situation on the ground, Serbs who have been ethnically cleansed from Kosovo have a greater right to feel bitter and exaggerate?
As I have written before here, if I were Albanian I could now afford to be magnanamous and would try harder to compromise with the Serbs.
gujgly
So you stand by your numbers that 1 million Albanians from Ablania settled in Kosova?!
This is beyond fascination. Let us even not mention where these people will be housed (as done on above blogger). From the population point of view Albania lost 1/3 of it's population and yet there is not even a blurp of this on any newspapers anywhere-except Serbia. And what is even more bizarre Kosova gained 1 million people - yet again it countinues to support itself as it did before. So as per your numbers there should be 3 million people in Kosova. Do you even know what you are implying? Seriously? I'amreally starting to see what is the level of thinking on the serbian nation by postings shown here. Imagine what the serb peasant thinks(who has no access to unbiased media)- just beyond comprehension. No wonder your parliament is ruled by radicals....
A-nyc
"Check your dioptry, i wrote it 500 000 - 1 million. I din't count them personally of course and neither are you. But it's coming from various sources"
Show me a source other than Serb sources!!!!
"Look in your own backyard, your PM is bloody terrorist. Your former PM is bloody terrorist. And your parlament consists of in majority of former war veterans/criminals also terrorists."
Yes in your eyes we are all terrorist of course. The only one indicted was the former and he left for Hague the very next day. No other incitments came-I'm sure you will claim Hague is biased right?
A-nyc
the US government lists the albanian terrorists in plain sight for everyone to see...and their organizations as well. Your people are as guilty as any other in the balkans...
06/27/2001
Executive Order of June 27, 2001
The President has issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons "who threaten international stabilization efforts in the Western Balkans." The text of the EO follows, including an Annex containing the names of designated targets. OFAC has updated its industry brochures and SDN list accordingly:
"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, have determined that the actions of persons engaged in, or assisting, sponsoring, or supporting, (i) extremist violence in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in southern Serbia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and elsewhere in the Western Balkans region, or (ii) acts obstructing the implementation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999 in Kosovo, threaten the peace in or diminish the security and stability of those areas and the wider region, undermine the authority, efforts, and objectives of the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and other international organizations and entities present in those areas and the wider region, and endanger the safety of persons participating in or providing support to the activities of those organizations and entities, including United States military forces and government officials. I find that such actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
I hereby order:
Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U. S. C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (Title IX, Pub. L. No. 106-387), and in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may hereafter be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the effective date, all property and interests in property of:
(i) the persons listed in the Annex to this order; and
(ii) persons designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, because they are found:
(A) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace in or diminishing the stability or security of any area or state in the Western Balkans region, undermining the authority, efforts, or objectives of international organizations or entities present in the region, or endangering the safety of persons participating in or providing support to the activities of those international organizations or entities, or
(B) to have actively obstructed, or to pose a significant risk of actively obstructing, implementation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 in Kosovo, or
(C) materially to assist in, sponsor, or provide financial or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, such acts of violence or obstructionism, or
(D) to be owned or controlled by, or acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly for or on behalf of, any of the foregoing persons, that are or hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in.
(b) I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by United States persons to persons designated in or pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in this order. Accordingly, the blocking of property and interests in property pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section includes, but is not limited to, the prohibition of the making by a United States person of any such donation to any such designated person, except as otherwise authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury.
(c) The blocking of property and property interests in or pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section includes, but is not limited to, the prohibition of the making or receiving by a United States person of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services to or for the benefit of a person designated in or pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section.
Sec. 2. Any transaction by a United States person that evades or avoids, or has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate, any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited. Any conspiracy formed to violate the prohibitions of this order is prohibited.
Sec. 3. For the purposes of this order:
(a) The term "person" means an individual or entity;
(b) The term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and
(c) The term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States.
See. 4. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order and, where appropriate, to advise the Secretary of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken.
Sec. 5. This order is not intended to create, nor does it create, any right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, officers, or any other person.
Sec. 6. (a) This order is effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on June 27, 2001;
(b) This order shall be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register."
ANNEX (in OFAC SDN list format):
ADEMI, Xhevat, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 8 Dec 1962; POB: Tetovo, FYROM) (individual) [BALKANS]
AHMETI, Ali, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 4 Jan 1959; POB: Kicevo, FYROM) (individual) [BALKANS]
BEXHETI, Nuri, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 1962; POB: Tetovo, FYROM) (individual) [BALKANS]
DALIPI, Tahir, Member of Political Council of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac (PCPMB) (POB: Presevo, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
ELSHANI, Gafur, Member of Popular Movement of Kosovo (LPK) (DOB: 29 Mar 1958; POB: Suva Reka, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
GASHI, Sabit, Member of National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo (LKCK) (DOB: 30 Dec 1967; POB: Suva Reka, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
HABIBI, Skender, Member of Party for Democratic Progress for Kosovo (PDK) (DOB: 1968; POB: Vitina, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
HARADINAJ, Daut, Regional Task Group 3 Commander of Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) (DOB: 6 Apr 1978; POB: Goldane, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
HASANI, Xhavit, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 5 May 1957; POB: Tanishec, FYROM) (individual) [BALKANS]
LIBERATION ARMY OF PRESEVO, MEDVEDJA, AND BUJANOVAC (a.k.a. PMBLA; a.k.a. UCPMB) [BALKANS]
LKCK (a.k.a. NATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR THE LIBERATION OF KOSOVO) [BALKANS]
LLADROVICI, Ramiz, Guard Rapid Reaction Group Deputy Commander of Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) (DOB: 3 Jan 1966) (individual) [BALKANS]
LPK (a.k.a. POPULAR MOVEMENT OF KOSOVO) [BALKANS]
LUSHTAKU, Sami, Regional Task Group 2 Commander of Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) (DOB: 20 Feb 1961; POB: Srbica, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
MUSLIU, Jonusz, Member of Political Council of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac (PCPMB) (DOB: 5 Jan 1959; POB: Konculj, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
MUSLIU, Shefqet, Member of Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac (UCPMB) (DOB: 12 Feb 1963; POB: Konculj, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
MUSTAFA, Rrustem, Regional Task Group 6 Commander of Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) (DOB: 27 Feb 1971; POB: Podujevo, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY (a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. UCK) [BALKANS]
NATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR THE LIBERATION OF KOSOVO (a.k.a. LKCK) [BALKANS]
NLA (a.k.a. NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY; a.k.a. UCK) [BALKANS]
OSTREMI, Gezim, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 1 Nov 1942; POB: Debar, Macedonia) (individual) [BALKANS]
PCPMB (a.k.a. POLITICAL COUNCIL OF PRESEVO, MEDVEDJA, AND BUJANOVAC) [BALKANS]
PMBLA (a.k.a. LIBERATION ARMY OF PRESEVO, MEDVEDJA, AND BUJANOVAC; a.k.a. UCPMB) [BALKANS]
POLITICAL COUNCIL OF PRESEVO, MEDVEDJA, AND BUJANOVAC (a.k.a. PCPMB) [BALKANS]
POPULAR MOVEMENT OF KOSOVO (a.k.a. LPK) [BALKANS]
SELIMI, Rexhep, Leadership Academy Commander of Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) (DOB: 15 Mar 1971; POB: Iglarevo, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
SHAKIRI, Hisni, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 1949; POB: Otlja, FYROM) (individual) [BALKANS]
SHAQIRI, Shaqir, Member of Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac (UCPMB) (DOB: 1 Sep 1964; POB: FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
SUMA, Emrush, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 27 May 1974; POB: Dimce, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
SYLA, Azem, Member of Party for Democratic Progress for Kosovo (PDK) (DOB: 5 Apr 1951; POB: FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
UCK (a.k.a. NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY; a.k.a. NLA) [BALKANS]
UCPMB (a.k.a. LIBERATION ARMY OF PRESEVO, MEDVEDJA, AND BUJANOVAC; a.k.a. PMBLA) [BALKANS]
VELIU, Fazli, Member of National Liberation Army (NLA) (DOB: 4 Jan 1945; POB: Kercove, FYROM) (individual) [BALKANS]
XHEMAJLI, Emrush, Member of Popular Movement of Kosovo (LPK) (DOB: 5 May 1959; POB: Urosevac, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS]
XHEMAJLI, Muhamet, Member of Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac (UCPMB) (DOB: 8 Feb 1958; POB: Muhovac, FRY) (individual) [BALKANS
...all shiftars....all on the watch list.
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