U.S., Europe Reject Partitioning Kosovo, State's Burns Says

Under secretary of state outlines final-status talks in press conference

The United States and Europe agree that final-status talks for Kosovo cannot lead to partitioning the province into separate ethnic enclaves or redrawing international boundaries with neighboring Albania or Macedonia, a senior U.S. diplomat says.

“There’s absolutely no international support for it whatsoever,” Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, said in a news conference in Washington November 8. “I haven’t heard a single country support the view that somehow partition would be a good way to resolve this problem.”

Burns said that a successful resolution to Kosovo’s international status also should strengthen Serbia-Montenegro both economically and politically, paving the way for closer relations with the European Union and NATO.

“One of the primary factors that concerns us going into these negotiations is that, at the end of them, neither side emerges as a loser in the process,” Burns said.

“Serbia and Montenegro to us is the keystone state in the Balkans. If the Balkans is going to be an area of increasing prosperity and stability, Serbia has to be a successful country,” he said.

The Kosovo province of Serbia-Montenegro has been administered by the United Nations since NATO’s 1999 air war drove out Yugoslav Serb forces following widespread human-rights abuses. On October 24, the U.N. Security Council endorsed final-status talks, which could lead either to independence or greater autonomy for Kosovo, according to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The United States does not endorse either possible outcome of the talks. Initial meetings are to begin within weeks, and formal negotiations are expected to begin in January 2005. Martti Ahtissari, former president of Finland, has been nominated to be the United Nations’ envoy for the talks.

Burns met with reporters at the State Department several hours after testifying on Kosovo’s status before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (See related article).

“It’s a perilous exercise … for foreigners to begin to draw lines,” Burns told reporters when asked about the possibility of partitioning Kosovo into separate ethnic enclaves. “It’s the view of all of our European allies that it would be a mistake to say that one of the options for the final-status talks in Kosovo would simply to be redefine the borders.”

Burns said the United States and its European partners also oppose any discussions that would lead to merging parts of Kosovo with neighboring Albania. “We don’t support any kind of greater Albania or irredentist Albanian state,” Burns said.

Kosovo’s southern neighbor, Macedonia, also has a significant ethnic Albanian population. Burns said that Macedonia “actually is a very positive symbol for the Kosovars because it’s a multiethnic country.”

Following is a transcript of the briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
November 9, 2005

ON-THE-RECORD BRIEFING
UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS R. NICHOLAS BURNS
ON U.S. STRATEGY FOR KOSOVO

November 8, 2005
Washington, D.C.
(4:10 p.m. EST)

MR. ERELI: Our briefer needs no introduction, but in the interest of those who aren't here and for the record, Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nick Burns will brief on the record on the Kosovo work plan and I'm happy to welcome Ambassador Burns.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Thank you very much. I testified this morning before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Kosovo and our preparation for the final status talks, so I'm very happy to answer any questions you have on that.

I just wanted to say in beginning that what you're seeing is a renewed and I think very energetic attempt by the United States to be very active in the Balkans, to complete in Bosnia what we began at Dayton ten years ago, which is the creation of a modern, single state that can take its place in the EU and NATO in the future. And in two weeks time, the Secretary is going to be hosting the Bosnian Tri-Presidency here, the three members of the Presidency, along with many of the other political party leaders in Bosnia to do two things:

One is to commemorate the Dayton Accords. It'll be the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Accords.

And the second is to look ahead and to see how they can modernize the Dayton Accords and create a more unified state.

And she will also be engaged in other events that day that we'll be letting you know about to honor some of our colleagues who died during the Bosnia negotiations and also to sign some agreements with the Bosnian Government that would indicate that a closer relationship with the United States.

Second, we continue our diplomatic efforts to convince the Serb Government in Belgrade and the Republika Srpska Government in Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina to give up the two indicted war criminals who are responsible for the massacres of ten years ago, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. And I spoke this morning in the Senate about our withholding of a normal relationship with Serbia and Montenegro, specifically, until Mladic is turned over to The Hague.

Third, we are now initiating the Kosovo final status talks and we had here at the State Department last week the former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and he is just about to be nominated by Secretary General Kofi Annan to be the final status envoy for the United Nations. I believe he'll be going out to the region in a couple of weeks time and the United States is fully supporting his mission. We will be naming an American envoy to these negotiations very soon and we intend to be fundamentally engaged. These are going to be very difficult negotiations, but they're necessary because the time has come to change the status quo and to give the people, the Albanians and the Serb populations of Kosovo, a chance to define their own future. They haven't had that opportunity in seven years.

So these are three elements of an American policy in the Balkans that is important, that is, I think, more vigorous than it has been in some time. And I'd be happy to talk about any aspect of this.

QUESTION: You said (inaudible) the outcome today. What of the outcome of the status talks? There will still be for a period of time a role for NATO to provide security for the United States -- for the United Nations to provide some kind of civil administration? That second aspect, what would that entail? Are they to supervise Kosovars?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: There is an assumption that underlies at least the approach of the United States, but I believe the approach of all other interested countries, about the result of these negotiations, and that is that whatever the parties decide -- whether they decide to create an independent state or whether they decide to continue, perhaps, with expanded autonomy, to have Kosovo continue as part of Serbia and Montenegro -- there's an assumption that that new entity is going to require continued international support. There's hardly anyone who believes that the creation, for instance, of an indigenous military force, a true army, armed force, would be the right move as part of these final status talks. And that speaks to the need for continued NATO or international presence.

On the civilian side, there are several options. It could be a continued United Nations presence. It could be a European Union presence. There could be the development of what we've done so successfully in Bosnia, which is the High Representative's office. But clearly, no matter what the solution is that the parties decide, there has to be some kind of -- there will have to be some kind of transitional phase during which the international community will remain involved, perhaps not in the same way or shape or size of the international presence over the last six and half years, but this is a given in these negotiations and it's not something that's really being disputed by any of the parties.

QUESTION: If I can, you also talked about how the talks need to involve incentives because, obviously, the senators were worried that you have these diametrically opposed positions. So you were saying, well, we can build incentives into it. On the Serb side, that was that Serbia could be integrated into EU and NATO, but that appeared to clash with your other condition, which is they can't go ahead with the integration into NATO unless they capture the war criminals.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: They have to make a choice. If the Serb Government wants to be part -- fully part of NATO and the EU, they have to then act like it. There is no country in NATO or the EU that would allow an indicted war criminal to roam at large in a territory of that state. And in fact, Mladic has been at large for ten years and for eight of those years was protected fully by the Serb state, by the Serb military, by their own admission.

And so if they want to be treated by the United States, by NATO, as a country that is worthy of future membership or even a partnership, then they have to act like it and they have to arrest Mladic or convince him to surrender voluntarily. But that is an absolute prior condition to any Serb admission into the Partnership for Peace. I gave that message directly to Prime Minister Kostunica as well as President Tadic when I was in Belgrade three weeks ago.

QUESTION: Excuse me. Maybe I missed it while I was away, but where do we stand on the decertification or that whole issue in terms of if they don't hand them forward? Are we any further advanced on that?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, you know, certification is a rolling process and back in June we did certify that over the course of the first five months of 2005 Serbia had turned, I think, by that time, ten individuals indicted for war crimes over to the tribunal in The Hague. And I think subsequent to that, they've turned three over.

We have other certification decisions to make ahead of us in the next half year. I don't want to anticipate what decisions Secretary Rice would make, but I would note that the continuing freedom of Mladic is a heavy factor and I would not think it would be an easy decision to make to certify as long as Mladic is at large. I wouldn't want to prejudge that decision because it's not mine to make; it's the Secretary of State's decision. But we have very strong feelings about this. We have very strong views about this here at the State Department and in our government. And that is that the Serbs need to take this decisive action to bring him to justice. The same is true of Karadzic, by the way, for the Bosnian Serbs.

QUESTION: Right. Just to follow up on that, I mean, this is what you've been saying for a while. I mean, we've been hearing this for a couple of months now. I mean --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We're very consistent here.

QUESTION: That's true. You are very consistent.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: And there is virtue in consistency.

QUESTION: And I remember a couple of months ago you were very angry because you felt you were almost personally, you know, either betrayed or lied to, whatever, misled about, you know, the possibility.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No, I didn't say that. I didn't say I'd been lied to.

QUESTION: Okay.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I just said that a very strong expectation was created by the Serb Government back in June that Mladic would be -- his arrest was imminent. It didn't happen. And so I went to Belgrade and I told them how disappointed I was.

QUESTION: That's right. Okay. So my question is is that after months of this now, isn't -- why you seem to be so circumspect right now and just keep moving the date of reckoning further down the track?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I didn't think I was being circumspect, really. Maybe I've surprised myself. We think we're being very clear. We -- the United States has consistently taken the hardest position on this issue of any country in the NATO alliance and will continue in that vein because we simply believe that it's fundamentally inconsistent to begin to welcome a country onto the NATO membership track, and Partnership for Peace would be a first initial step, if that country hasn't complied with the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in a celebrated case and if the object of that concern is a person who is responsible for a massacre that occurred ten years ago, 8,000 people killed. So we have strong views and we're going to keep to them. And I don't think we're being circumspect, but I think we're being very open and clear about it.

QUESTION: I guess I was referring in terms of the certification. Is it a statutory thing in terms of the dates or the time or --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Oh, yes, it's statutory.

QUESTION: Oh, okay.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yeah. And it will come up on the calendar and we'll let you know what decision the Secretary makes. But right now it's not heading in a very positive direction because there's this very large issue out there called Ratko Mladic.

QUESTION: Do you know, ballpark, about when it should come up or?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I think it's at the end of the year.

QUESTION: At the end of the year.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yeah, I can check.

QUESTION: Okay.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Charlie.

QUESTION: I mean, the previous question referred to a few months ago and you've been saying this for a while. Well, you know and I know you've been saying this for years. And I'm not trying to be funny. I mean, the U.S. can be as hard as it wants. It sounds like a broken record. And while it sounds good and while the aim is good, why isn't something happening or why aren't you doing more to put pressure on to make more happen? It seems like you say something and it rolls off like water off a duck's back.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I don't think so. For most of the last ten years, the Serbs obviously were not interested in bringing these people to justice. They didn't make any attempt to do that. But in the last year or two, the Serbs now see that they have -- the Serb Government has an opportunity to begin a membership track with the European Union and with NATO. And so now we've seen over the last year -- the last ten months -- action by the Serb Government on the 13 individuals that I talked about, transferred to The Hague.

We need to see action now on the biggest prize, which is Mladic, and we hope the same will be true of Karadzic. So there is leverage here. The Serbs are responding to it. It's very important that the United States and our other allies not weaken and not give into those who say that we should just forget about this and look to the future and bring Serbia into Partnership for Peace. That's not our view.

So I think the leverage is actually working if you look at the actions of the Serb Government. They just now need to get to the toughest question of all, which Mladic.

QUESTION: What are our allies doing or what are they not doing? And who could do more to help you get your -- reach your aim?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Our allies -- this is NATO policy actually, so we have a unified NATO position that Mladic should be turned over to the War Crimes Tribunal.

Yes.

QUESTION: On Kosovo, I don't quite understand why, in your opening position, is there such a forthright opposition to the possibility of partition. I mean, there are plenty of other precedents flying around at the moment where the Bush Administration is willing to recognize redrawing borders. I mean, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict readily springs to mind. And if the two sides were to agree on a way of partitioning Kosovo, and there's an obvious way that one might do that -- plenty of people have drawn up maps in the past -- would that -- why do you have to rule that out that from the beginning?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: It's a perilous exercise to begin drawing -- for foreigners to begin to draw lines and redefine other people's reality, their borders.

QUESTION: We have done just that with Israel-Palestine.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: And in the Balkans especially. And so it's not just the view of the United States. It's the view of all of our European allies that it would be a mistake to say that one of the options for the final status talks in Kosovo would simply to be redefine the borders, especially in a region where if you look south, there is a new country called Macedonia that actually is a very positive symbol for the Kosovars because it's a multiethnic country. There's another country called Albania.

We don't support any kind of greater Albania or irredentist Albanian state. There are people in that region who, you know, support that objective historically and we would not want to see that view materialize into one of the options that was considered at the negotiations. It would be a bad precedent. It would be a very bad way to begin these negotiations. There's absolutely no international support for it whatsoever. I haven't heard a single country support the view that somehow partition would be a good way to resolve this problem.

Mr. Lambros.

QUESTION: Secretary Burns, how do you assess the role of Greece in the Balkans, and particularly in the case of Kosovo?

AMBASSADOR HANFORD: Well, as I said this morning to the Senate in response to some of the questions being asked by Senator Sabanes, that the neighbors of Kosovo are going to have to play a concerted role in these negotiations because all of them will have a stake in the future of Kosovo. All of them can contribute, either politically or economically, to the ultimate solution.

Greece has a major responsibility because Greece, as you know, is the largest investor and largest trade partner with those close Southeast Europe Balkan neighbors, with Macedonia, Albania and with Kosovo. And one of the challenges to build a future Kosovo, whether it's independent or whether it's part of Serbia, will be to create jobs and to overhaul the economy which has been fractured by the events of the last 15 years. And Greek investment is going to be fundamental to that. Fundamental. So we see Greece as having a very important role and we've been in touch with the highest levels of the Greek Government on this. I've discussed this issue several times recently, this issue of the Kosovo talks, with Foreign Minister Molyviatis. And we're counting on Greece to play a very active and very constructive role.

QUESTION: In other words, do you consider Greece a strategic partner in the Balkan, as it was said by President Bush many, many times?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Of course we do. Yes, Greece is our -- Greece is one of our most important strategic partners in the Balkans.

Yes. Saul.

QUESTION: No one behind me. If Serbia can get into NATO ultimately by handing over Mladic and if ultimately Serbia can also enter the European Union similarly, what does it actually get or what can be the incentive for Serbia to give up Kosovo?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well --

QUESTION: How do you persuade Serbia that this is in their interests? I mean, you talked openly in your testimony this morning about an independent Kosovo and how they can earn it. You clearly think it could be a viable state. What does Serbia get out of it?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Let's start with the fundamentals. It was Secretary General Kofi Annan who two weeks ago framed the Kosovo negotiations by saying that there were two plausible outcomes: either independence or continued and greater autonomy of Kosovo within Serbia and Montenegro.

I said this morning very clearly that the United States is not supporting either of those options. We're not a champion of either one. We believe that the proper way to resolve this is to have the parties to the conflict make this decision as to what their future is and then we'll support that outcome -- if it's a credible outcome, obviously. And that's an important principle that we not try to chart the future of these negotiations before they start.

Did I answer your question fully?

QUESTION: Well, not really.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Really? How would you like to follow up?

QUESTION: A follow-up on this. One -- you know, one can see how Kosovo can be induced to possibly accept greater autonomy because they would still be part of Europe and presumably could also be part of NATO through going to Serbia. But I don't see, on the other side of the equation, how independence produces anything that is desirable for Serbia.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Without --

QUESTION: And if you're going to be involved in this process that has two possible outcomes, how will you be, you know, lending your advice to this?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Without forecasting what we think the outcome is going to be or should be, I would answer your question by saying that one of the things that concerns us, one of the primary factors that concerns us going in these negotiations, is that at the end of them neither side emerges as a loser in the process.

Serbia and Montenegro to us is the keystone state in the Balkans. If the Balkans is going to be an area of increasing prosperity and stability, Serbia has to be a successful country. And this is going to be a extremely difficult negotiation for the Serbs because they -- a lot of their history, as you know, over the last 1,000 years, is tied up in Kosovo. A lot of their most important Serb Orthodox religious sites and churches and monasteries are in Kosovo.

And so paying attention to those issues -- churches, Patrimonial sites, religious symbols -- is going to be an important part of these negotiations. And giving Serbia the very clear sense that a successful outcome of these talks will actually add to the possibility of their future involvement with the EU and NATO is also going to be an important part of these negotiations.

You asked about incentives. I would say that those are the incentives. Those are among the incentives for the Serbs. And the other would be that -- and this is very much an outsider's perspective, obviously. We're not Serbs. We're Americans. But the Serbs have been at war or internal chaos or internal challenge for 15 years and they should -- they obviously -- if you go to Belgrade and talk to people, they want that period to end. They want to move forward. They want to finish with the end of Yugoslavia and get on with building a modern state.

Dealing with the Kosovo problem is a necessity, where you have a situation now where 90 percent of the people who live there are Albanians -- Muslims -- and that's a dramatic change from March of 1999 when the war began. So those are some of the incentives and realities that underline the issue for the Serbs as we see them.

QUESTION: Sir, can I just clarify that? Are you saying that a successful outcome to the Kosovo problem is a condition for Serbia to gain eventual NATO membership?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No. I said, actually, something very different.

QUESTION: You said it's an incentive.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I said that we think that a successful Kosovo final status talks should be the emergence of a stronger, healthier Serbia and Montenegro that has the prospect of future involvement with EU and NATO. That's different than what you just said I said.

QUESTION: Do you not see you're, turning it the other way around, saying if these talks are not successful because one or two of the parties will not agree, then Serbia cannot proceed to eventual NATO membership?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, I said what I said and I framed it the way I wanted to frame it because it represents our views. But I would also say that, you know, if on a hypothetical basis -- you don't want to go down this road too far -- but if the negotiations were not successful and if there were further turmoil in Kosovo, that's not going to help. That would not help the aspirations in any of the countries of the region for a future association with NATO and the EU, I would think.

But we have to present that these will be successful talks and it's going to be a more -- a positive outcome for all sides. That's our hope.

QUESTION: You're saying that to make it successful you want to have a clear sense that the talks are successful and will actually add to the possibility of Serbia entering into NATO and the EU.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes.

QUESTION: Okay. That's the way you did frame it. But couldn't they get into NATO and EU anyway without doing anything on Kosovo?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I think not because admission into NATO -- I can just speak about NATO, we belong to NATO, we don't belong with the EU -- would have to be by the consensus. All the countries would have to agree, including the United States. And I don't think anyone would take a country into NATO that had a major territorial dispute within it, in the heart of it, that had not resolved this huge question of the future of Kosovo. I don't think there's any possibility of that happening.

QUESTION: So it does sound like it's a condition for --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No. I framed it the way I wanted to frame it. And I framed it the way that we talk about it in real life, in real diplomatic terms. We tend to try to frame things positively when we talk to other governments.

QUESTION: Right. So how about this? If they hand over the war criminals that you want them to but don't sort out the Kosovo problem, can they get into NATO?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: You know, Charlie taught me long ago, never to answer a hypothetical question like that.

QUESTION: But you --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: He'd be disappointed. He'd be disappointed. And I --

QUESTION: You were --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I'd rather --

QUESTION: I tried --

QUESTION: You were asked by a senator, weren't you, is that the only condition? And I think you said yes.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, wait a minute. For Partnership for Peace. We've told the Serbs -- Partnership for Peace is not NATO membership. It's entry into a partnership program. It's short of membership. We've told the Serbs, if you would succeed in getting Mladic to The Hague, we'll support you the next day for Partnership for Peace. Membership is a much higher challenge that requires much greater efforts. So you have to distinguish between the two, and I answered the senator's question on Partnership for Peace.

Mr. Lambros, then I've got to take off.

QUESTION: Secretary Burns, you stated only today in the Senate, talking about the Kosovars you met in Pristina the other day, "I made clear to them that the independence must be earned." I am wondering why independence must be earned but not a compromise solution. May we assume that independence of Kosovo is the only solution, according to the U.S. policy?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No, you know what I said today and I think you have my written testimony. I said there are two fundamental options and we support neither. But I did say that independence has to be earned because it's true, because if there is to be an independent state -- and I don't know if there will be or not -- then the people who would run that, the Kosovar Albanians and the Kosovar Serbs, need to demonstrate that they could manage the affairs adequately, that they have sufficient political unity, that they respect minority rights, that they would respect democratic freedoms -- all the other principles that are embedded in the guiding principles which we have sent to the parties at the start of these talks.

QUESTION: Sir, a follow-up. It is very important for the boundaries. You also said that, "There should be no change in the existing boundaries of Kosovo and no partition."

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes.

QUESTION: But the second (inaudible) you mentioned by the Kosovars means clearly the opposite and secession from Serbia. Could you please clarify this unclear status?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No, it's not -- that's not contradictory. That's the position of the Contact Group and has been for six and a half years: There shall be no change in the internationally recognized borders of any of the states in the region and certainly no change to the borders of Kosovo itself. That is a different question than whether Kosovo remains as an autonomous province of Serbia and Montenegro or whether it become independent.

QUESTION: One more on Montenegro?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Sure.

QUESTION: Well, Holbrooke said, you know, your testimony was dramatic, what you'd said about Montenegro and, you know, I'm not really --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I missed that.

QUESTION: Yeah, well, I'm not really understanding why.

QUESTION: Did you say something dramatic about Montenegro?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Do you want me to say something dramatic about Montenegro?

QUESTION: Is it that your sort of acceptance of a referendum that the Montenegrins want would be a referendum only on --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I heard him say -- I missed most of his testimony, but I was there out of respect for him at the beginning, obviously. And but I heard him say that he felt that there hadn't been high-level U.S. involvement with President Djukanovic in a number of years and that he was struck by the fact that we had had a meeting with Djukanovic. I had had a meeting and our Ambassador, Mike Polt, has had several meetings with him. He is the President of Montenegro.

And so that's what I took away from Ambassador Holbrooke's comments. It was the fact of the meeting, which was meant to recognize -- to recognize -- to convey respect. But the message in that meeting was that it's not our decision as to whether or not there is a referendum -- that's built into the constitutional charter of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro -- but that if a referendum is to be held, it has to be held following elementary democratic practices so that it could be seen to be a viable referendum. And that's the message that I brought to my meeting with President Djukanovic.

QUESTION: But a referendum that only involves Montenegrins? That would be okay with you? Or would it have to be --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: If you look at the constitutional charter for the state union, both Serbia and Montenegro have the right to hold separate referendums, or a referendum in one part of the state union on the question of independence. There's no argument about that. The only discussion that I was involved in with President Djukanovic -- and really this is consistent with a lot of what the European allies have told him, the EU has told him -- and that is you've got to -- if you're going to hold it, you have to hold it in a democratic way, transparent, so the people know who the voters are and then people know how this vote was conducted so that people can have confidence that it was an unassailably democratic process.

Thank you.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

EU sees long road for Balkan membership hopefuls

By Marcin Grajewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Western Balkan countries face a long and bumpy road towards joining the European Union, with corruption, fluid politics, weak courts and opaque economic rules among major challenges, EU reports showed on Wednesday.

The executive European Commission recommended that the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, which came close to civil war four years ago, be declared a candidate for EU membership.

Its annual progress reports on other Balkan states confirmed that the EU would keep its door open to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro as long as they keep on reforming their political systems and economies.

The EU, which expanded into ex-communist eastern Europe last year, has long used the prospect of enlargement to encourage stability, free market reforms and respect for human rights.

"The accession process is a tool for enhancing security and stability in that region which has suffered so many wars and ethnic conflicts in the last decade," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference.

Slovenia joined the EU in 2004, Croatia opened accession talks last month and Macedonia is next in line, although it is not expected to join before 2012 and the Commission proposed no date for membership negotiations in its recommendation.

But the majority of mini-states in the region, which was torn by three major wars during the 1990s, have not yet achieved even the first level of integration with the 25-nation EU, which is the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.

The EU executive said Albania, which suffered from decades of a particularly harsh brand of communism, was now ready to sign such an agreement, which offers trade privileges, financial aid and strong political ties.

PROGRESS IN ALBANIA, SERBIA

Rehn said Albania's general elections this year were "reasonably free and fair", adding he would travel to Tirana this week to assess the new government's reform drive.

The report on Serbia and Montenegro said the country should boost its cooperation with an international war crimes tribunal, overhaul its judicial system, fight corruption, and ensure democratic control over the military.

Belgrade started talks on an association agreement with the EU on October 10, five years after the overthrow of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial at the Hague-based tribunal on charges of genocide.

Rehn said talks on the agreement could be concluded within a year, but the report made it clear the country had much to do.

"As regards justice, freedom and security, no visible progress has taken place in areas such as visas, border control, asylum and migration," it said.

It urged Belgrade to do more to hunt the top two indicted Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects, former military commander Ratko Mladic and his political master, Radovan Karadzic.

The Commission also urged Serbia to help solve the problems of Kosovo, which remains a United Nations protectorate six years after NATO waged an air war to stop Serbian forces persecuting the ethnic Albanian majority.

The EU executive published a separate report on Kosovo for the first time, but Rehn dismissed suggestions the move had political significance for talks on the province's final status.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, which Rehn said would start talks on an association agreement this year, needs to thoroughly overhaul state institutions, cooperate more with the war crimes tribunal, fight corruption and launch many free market reforms.

"The country and its reforms suffer from complex government structures, fragmented policy-making and a lack resources and qualified staff," the report said.

U.S. deports illegal mom and U.S.-citizen kids to Kosovo

Wednesday, November 9, 2005


Kosovo.

The mention of this blasted enclave of the former Yugoslavia brings to mind the slaughter of thousands of civilians and a U.S. bombing campaign in 1999 to end the horror of "ethnic cleansing."

It now also makes us wonder what has become of a deported illegal immigrant from Sanilac County and her three American-born children.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent 45-year-old Marije Berishaj and her children, Geta, 13; Lazer, 12; and Clinton, 5, back to Kosovo, a war-torn country where United Nations troops, including those from the U.S., still are needed to keep an uneasy peace.

Justice in this case was far too blind.

But the law, after all, is the law. Marije Berishaj arrived in the U.S. in 1991. Her passport expired in 1995. She was unemployed here, collected government benefits, and didn't have a visa or a green card for work that would have allowed her to stay here legally.

An immigration law judge ordered her deported on Oct. 21.

Wanting to keep the family together, she took her three children with her.

That's what is really sad about this family's saga.

The three kids, by all legal and cultural definitions born citizens of this country, were sent to a war-torn and dangerous place where most children end their schooling in the fifth grade.

No matter what mom and dad did or didn't do to earn deportation, these children surely didn't deserve the fate they got.

Doesn't the Department of Homeland Security have bigger fish to fry?

And how does the department's new get-tough stance on illegal immigrants square with estimates that there are 10 million or more illegal aliens among us right now?

We sure don't see trainloads of aliens heading to our borders so they can be booted out of our country.

But then, such a massive action probably would have a huge impact on the underground market for cheap labor.

So we allow our federal agents to kick underage American citizens' moms out of the country while everybody winks at the gardeners, the housekeepers and the sweatshop workers who'll gladly work for low pay and no benefits if it means at crack at the American Dream.

However illegal that may be.

Marije Berishaj's real crime appears to be unemployment.

That, and the boneheaded comment her husband, Martin Berishaj, apparently made when demanding more Social Security money for his disability. He allegedly told a federal worker she should have been in the World Trade Center when terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

He was kicked out of the country in 2002.

Now, tragically, the family may be back together.

In Dakovico, Kosovo.

Two former illegal immigrants who didn't bother to fly under Department of Homeland Security radar.

And their three little U.S. citizens.

The Homeland Security apparatus worked perfectly.

Lady Justice was truly blind.

But nobody has an answer for the one stinging question that remains.

What about the children?

- Our View is the editorial opinion of The Bay City Times, as determined by the newspaper's editorial board, which includes the editorial page editor, the editor and the publisher.

US backs Kosovo incentives for Serbs

By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: November 9 2005 02:00 | Last updated: November 9 2005 02:00

The US yesterday made the case for offering Serbia incentives to reach agreement in negotiations over the final status of Kosovo, while setting out the possibility of independence for the province if the ethnic Albanian majority accepted compromises to accommodate its Serbian minority.


Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state, told a Senate hearing the US was neither championing independence nor autonomy for Kosovo. But diplomats said his testimony was a clear signal the US looked favourably on independence, under certain conditions. In what diplomats also called a significant policy statement, Mr Burns made clear the US had no objection to independence for Montenegro if it chose to abandon its union with Serbia through a referendum, whose terms have yet to be agreed.

Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, last week selected Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president, as his special envoy to lead talks on the status of Kosovo. The UN has administered Kosovo since Nato occupied the province in 1999.

"They [Kosovo Albanians] want independence. They have to prove they are worthy of it," Mr Burns told the Senate foreign relations committee.

Mr Burns said he had recently told the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team that they could not attain their objective without compromise. "They have to assure the minority population there's a future for that minority population," he said. That included guarantees that Serbian churches and historic sites would be respected.

Asked what incentives could be offered to Serbia, Mr Burns said a successful outcome would help the prospects of eventual membership of Nato and the European Union. Serbia would not be able to contemplate joining Nato as long as it was involved in a territorial dispute, he said.

Mr Burns reiterated that as a first stage, to join Nato's partnership for peace programme, Serbia had to make sure that Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, had surrendered to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Mr Burns said partition of Kosovo was not an option. He also advocated a continued Nato presence, with US troops, even after the settlement of status.

Macedonia backed as EU candidate

The European Commission has recommended that Macedonia become a candidate country for EU membership.

Macedonia will be the third ex-Yugoslav republic to gain candidate status, after Slovenia - an EU member since 2004 - and Croatia.

The Commission did not set a date for starting entry talks with Macedonia, leaving that to December's EU summit.

It said Turkey could now be termed a functioning market economy but said it had to do more to respect human rights.

EU officials say that politically, Macedonia is an incredibly positive story, but that it still has a long way to go in terms of the economy and the public administration.

Weak and divided

The country stepped back from the brink of civil war in 2001, after the EU and Nato helped broker an agreement between ethnic Albanian rebels and the majority Slav population.

Guide to EU candidates

"Only a few years after a major security crisis, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia today is a stable democracy and a functioning multi-ethnic state," a Commission statement said.

"This is a remarkable achievement. The country has also made important progress towards European integration. The Commission welcomes this progress and recommends that the Council should grant candidate status to the country."

The Commission's annual progress reports on applicant countries, released on Wednesday, describe the Balkans as a particular challenge for the EU, a region where states are weak and societies divided.

All of them have been promised eventual EU membership, but the Commission makes clear they can only join once they have met the criteria in full.

It also admits that any further expansion will have to be better explained to the people of Europe.

Turkey challenged

Accession talks with Turkey, which began last month, are described as a long-term process.

Turkey's acquisition of market economy status is a vital stage on the path to EU membership.

The Commission said: "Turkey can be regarded as a functioning market economy, as long as it firmly maintains its recent stabilisation and reform achievements."

But the Commission warns that the pace of change has slowed down this year and sets Turkey almost 150 things to do in the next two years if it wants to keep membership talks on track.

The long list includes implementing a policy of zero tolerance against torture, strengthening the fight against corruption, and limiting the political influence of the armed forces.

Turkey must also improve freedom of expression, women's rights and grant more religious freedom and more cultural rights to the Kurdish community.

Independence only way forward for Kosovo: Holbrooke

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top State Department official on firmly linked the prospect of Serbia's entry into NATO with resolution of the fate of the mainly ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo.
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Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs and the US pointman on Kosovo, said the hope of NATO membership was one of the biggest incentives for Serbia to grant the province more autonomy or independence.

He told reporters a goal of UN-sponsored talks on Kosovo "should be the emergence of a stronger, a healthier Serbia Montenegro that has the prospect of future involvement in the EU and NATO."

Burns refused to say a settlement in Kosovo, which has been run by the United Nations since a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian troops to withdraw in 1999, was a pre-condition for Belgrade's entry into the military alliance.

But he said, "If the negotiations were not successful and if there were further turmoil in Kosovo, that would not help the aspirations of any of the countries in the region for future association with NATO and the EU."

The 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization operates by consensus and Serbia would have a tough time mustering support before the tensions over Kosovo were laid to rest, Burns said.

"I don't think anyone would take a country into NATO that had a major territorial dispute within it," he said. "I don't think there's any possibility of that happening."

Burns reiterated the US offer to support Serbian membership in NATO's Partnership for Peace cooperation program if Belgrade turned over fugitive Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.

But he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that full NATO membership "is a much higher challenge. It requires much greater efforts. So you have to distinguish between the two."

Burns spoke after testifying before Congress on the Kosovo negotiations, which he said were "as difficult a set of talks as you can imagine." He predicted 2006 would be a crucial year for the Balkans.

Also testifying was veteran US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the architect of the 1995 Bosnian peace deal, who said that independence was the only way forward for Kosovo and its mainly Muslim Albanians.

"I cannot see any final status for Kosovo other than independence," said Holbrooke, who forged the Dayton Peace Accords that ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

"But at the same time ... this cannot be achieved without ironclad guarantees for the safety, security, and protection of the rights of the Serbs who live in Kosovo and the protection of their magnificent monuments," he said.

The comments came as the United Nations was set to launch talks on the final status of Kosovo, where NATO forces six years ago halted a a Serbian campaign against ethnic Albanian separatists.

Holbrooke also stressed the international community had to hold out the prospect of European Union and NATO membership to the Serbs in Belgrade to convince them to abandon their claim to Kosovo, a province that played a central role in their history.

"We have to give the Serb leadership enough incentives so that they don't appear to have given away 1,000 years of Serb tradition," Holbrooke said.

"In the end, the Serbs in Belgrade will have to choose between Brussels and Kosovo, it's as brutal as that," he added.

Holbrooke said the United States needed to maintain troops in the region as "history has shown that when Europeans go there and muck around, bad things happen."

US Senator Joseph Biden said it was important for the United States and Europe that the upcoming talks on Kosovo be successful as that would send an important message to the Muslim world.

"Pristina is one of the few Muslim cities in the world where the United States is not only respected, but revered," Biden said.

"If we get Kosovo right, Muslims around the world will be reminded how the United States came to the aid of Kosovo's Muslim population and helped them build a strong, independent, multi-ethnic democracy."

Bomb Blast Damages Car In Kosovo's Capital; Nobody Hurt

PRISTINA (AP)--A bomb exploded inside a car in Kosovo's capital Wednesday, damaging the vehicle but causing no injuries, police said.

The blast occurred in a central neighborhood in Pristina shortly after midnight. The bomb had been placed inside a car, said Sabrije Kamberi, a police spokeswoman.

Police had no motive for the blast. North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeepers inspected the area after the explosion and police units were investigating.

Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. and patrolled by NATO peacekeepers since mid-1999.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

US: Serbia can't join NATO without Kosovo solution

By Saul Hudson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will block Serbia from joining NATO unless it resolves a territorial dispute over volatile Kosovo, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday in what was a new U.S. demand on Belgrade.

Nicholas Burns, the No. 3 State Department official, outlined the U.S. condition to persuade Serbia to seek a settlement, even though Belgrade can only lose authority over the province if it reaches an accord.

Previously, the United States has said Serbia had to capture two high-profile war criminals before it could enter into negotiations as a first step toward membership in the transatlantic alliance.

But on Tuesday, Burns said that even if Serbia met that demand the United States would still block its entry into an organization it dominates if Belgrade does not move on Kosovo.

"I don't think anyone would take a country into NATO that had a major territorial dispute within it, in the heart of it, that had not resolved this huge question on the future of Kosovo," Burns told reporters. "I don't think there's any possibility of that happening."

The former ambassador to NATO also said the Kosovo talks should involve offering Serbia the incentive that a settlement would further its ambition of joining the European Union.

"Final status" talks to determine whether Kosovo wins either independence or greater autonomy are due to start later this month, conducted by newly appointed U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing forced then-President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces. Some 10,000 civilians were killed during his two-year crackdown on an Albanian guerrilla insurgency.

Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority has been clamoring for independence ever since.

Serbia, which has ambitions to eventually join NATO and the European Union, rejects independence for Kosovo but has offered far-reaching autonomy.
Whatever the outcome, NATO forces would need to stay in the province to prevent a repeat of attacks last year on Serb homes and religious sites, Burns said.

Criticized for neglecting the Balkans, the Bush administration has refocused this year on the region, with Burns leading the diplomacy.

While the United States refuses to state its preference for Kosovo's future status, a congressional hearing with Burns earlier on Tuesday focused mainly on how independence would be achieved.

Diplomats, who asked not to be named because Western governments have not announced their goals for the talks, said Washington favors a compromise that it terms "supervised independence," with an international body overseeing its treatment of the Serb minority.

"They want independence. They have to prove they are worthy of it," Burns said, adding Kosovars needed to show they would respect minority rights.

Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who negotiated peace accords in the Balkans a decade ago, said Serbia had to choose between Kosovo or membership in Western institutions.

"They will have to figure out a way of letting Kosovo go," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But he also warned independence for Kosovo would lead inevitably to the breakup of Serbia-Montenegro.

And Burns, who said he supported the idea of Montenegrins holding a referendum on becoming independent from Serbia, acknowledged the Kosovo talks could create instability in the increasingly ethnically splintered region.

"Serbia and Montenegro, the state union, may face a political crisis of sorts," he said.

Nicholas Burns: Hearing on Kosovo- A Way Forward?

Wednesday, 9 November 2005, 12:42 pm
Press Release: US State Department
Hearing on Kosovo: A Way Forward?
R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs
Remarks as prepared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Washington, DC
November 8, 2005

Introduction


Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Senators, it is a great pleasure for me to appear before you once again today to speak about our hope for a final peace in Kosovo and our broader American policy in the Balkans region. I addressed the House of Representatives on these issues in May of this year, and I am pleased to have another opportunity to discuss this important subject with Congress.

President Bush and Secretary Rice have directed a renewed and energetic U.S. effort to bring peace and security to this troubled region. After a decade of conflicts which had a devastating impact on every part of the former Yugoslavia, after hundreds of thousands killed and left homeless, we are at last seeing real progress on undoing the evils of the 1990s. United States policy is designed to point the countries of Southeast Europe toward a democratic future as part of NATO and the European Union.

Since the end of the Cold War, three American Presidents have had one overarching strategic ambition in Europe to seek a democratic peace by unifying the Continent in freedom. The Balkans are the finishing piece to this puzzle. That is why we must use 2006 to attain a final status for the long-suffering people of Kosovo, and to help Bosnia-Herzegovina modernize the Dayton Accords by building a more integrated state with a stronger central government. It is why we must send the despicable war criminals Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Ante Gotovina to the Hague, as they are responsible for Europe's worst human rights abuses since the Nazis. It is why what happens in the Balkans matters to our country and why we must use our diplomatic power and ingenuity to help the people of the region chart a new future.

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As the history of the last 15 years has demonstrated, the U.S. has an abiding interest in the Balkans. Thousands of our finest diplomats and soldiers have spent years trying to build a peaceful future there. America and Europe have worked well together in the 1990s, we ended the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and our troops have since kept the peace in both places. In 2004, NATO successfully concluded its historic peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. We have also worked intensively with all the countries of the former Yugoslavia to prepare them for eventual NATO and EU membership. Without stability in the Balkans, we will never see a united, peaceful Europe that can be a true partner for the U.S. in promoting democracy throughout the world. It is now time to finish the job.

The Balkans region will not be stable, however, as long as Kosovo remains in a state of political suspended animation. The history of the past decade tells us that the United States is indispensable to stability in the Balkans. We must continue to play this key role as we look to support the process that will determine Kosovo's future status. We also look forward to continued coordination with Members of Congress, noting the valuable support Senators and Representatives, including most notably members of this committee, have given to our efforts.

2006 will be a crucial year of decision for Kosovo and the Balkans. The UN-sponsored Final Status Talks will begin in a few weeks time, and after more than six years of UN rule, it is time for the people of Kosovo -- Albanian and Serb alike -- to be given a chance to define their future. Our partners in the Contact Group -- the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom -- agree with us that the status quo in Kosovo is neither sustainable nor desirable. Earlier this year, the U.S. led the way to convince the UN to initiate a review of its Standards, conducted this summer by Norway's able Ambassador to NATO, Kai Eide. The report concluded that further progress on these issues is unlikely until there is greater clarity about Kosovo's future status. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended beginning negotiations to determine Kosovo's future status, a recommendation the Security Council endorsed on October 24. Secretary-General Annan has announced his intention to nominate former Finnish President Marti Ahtisaari as the UN Special Envoy to lead the process. He is, in our view, a superb choice: an experienced and resourceful diplomat who commands broad respect in the international community.

The Secretary-General's actions have begun the process that will lead to an internationally recognized future status for Kosovo. I hosted a meeting of the Contact Group with President Ahtisaari in Washington last week to kick off these efforts. We expect President Ahtisaari will begin his work as soon as the Security Council endorses his nomination this week. The U.S. will very soon name a senior American envoy to assist in the negotiations and be ready to bring U.S. credibility and influence to bear when and where it can help to promote a settlement.

We understand that diplomatically, this will be tough going. The parties to the talks the Kosovar Albanians, Kosovar Serbs and the government of Serbia-Montenegro will see their vital interests at stake. We expect them to participate constructively and to restrain more extreme groups from using violence to gain political ends. Although we will be working for a peaceful settlement, NATO troops will have to be ready to defuse potentially violent situations.

Elements of a Settlement

After NATO fought and won the three-month Kosovo war in 1999, we then passed UN Security Council Resolution 1244 which called for "facilitating a political process designed to determine Kosovo's future status." That resolution left open the question of what that status would be. Nearly seven years later, it is time to answer that question: will Kosovo in the future be independent or will it continue under Serb rule with a greater measure of autonomy?

The United States will not support a specific outcome at this stage. It is important that we and our allies remain neutral, because the future of the province is the sole responsibility of the Albanian and Serb people of Kosovo and the Government of Serbia and Montenegro. But the final result should respect the basic facts of Kosovo today 90 percent of the people are ethnic Albanians who were treated cruelly, even viciously, by the government of Slobodan Milosevic. They deserve to live in security and peace. The Kosovo Serb population also needs to be assured that they have a future there and that their churches and patrimonial sites will be respected.

The negotiations will be difficult. Serb and Albanian positions are likely to be mutually exclusive, held with deep conviction and infused with nearly 1,000 years of history. Kosovo Albanians insist that they can only be secure if they are independent of Serbia. Serbs have promoted a future of "more than autonomy, but less than independence" as the most they could support.

There is, however, potential for common ground. The aspirations of Serbs, Albanians and Kosovo's other ethnic groups are alike in that they all want a future in which they can live secure lives, participate in democratic government and enjoy economic opportunity. There is already agreement that Kosovo will be self-governing in some form, that it will also remain multi-ethnic and will protect the cultural heritage of all its inhabitants. The U.S. will continue to work to ensure these concepts are incorporated into Kosovo's future status, because to make a political determination without these principles would leave the door open to future conflict and put at risk the war we fought to prevent ethnic cleansing and the strenuous efforts our diplomats and soldiers have made to keep the peace.

As with any process of negotiation, neither side will get everything it wants. To reach a lasting result, both will sometimes be required to make compromises that may seem to violate important interests in the cause of peace. In Kosovo, we face an unprecedented challenge of trying to build stability after a NATO intervention led to the end of government structures that had served to repress, rather than protect, the majority of the population. For six years, the UN has exercised the functions of a government, but, as foreseen by UN Resolution 1244 in 1999, the time has come to enable Kosovo's people to govern themselves consistent with the outcome of the status process to come.

Mr. Chairman, the U.S. and its European allies have decided on several guiding principles that must shape the process of determining a future status for Kosovo and guide the work of the Special Envoy. We have made clear that a return to the situation before 1999 is unacceptable and that there should be no change in existing boundaries of Kosovo, and no partition. Other principles for a settlement include full respect of human rights, the right of refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes, the protection of cultural and religious heritage and the promotion of effective means to fight organized crime and terrorism. The Contact Group agreed to exclude those who advocate violence and that, once begun, the status process must continue without interruption.

We will ensure that the result of the process meets three key criteria:

* First, it must promote stability not only in Kosovo, but throughout Southeast Europe. * It must also provide full democratic rights for all people, especially minorities. * Finally, it must further the integration of the region with the Euro-Atlantic mainstream.

The U.S. must remain committed to continued involvement in Kosovo as a status agreement is negotiated, because we have too much invested in Kosovo and the Balkans to risk failure by withdrawing prematurely. This is where the U.S., through its participation in the NATO forces in Kosovo, has made a great contribution. U.S. forces, including National Guard contingents from several states, have been essential in deterring conflict, and they have made extraordinary contributions to the communities in which they serve. Our troops have maintained security in a tense and sometimes violent environment. They have volunteered to help build schools, establish clinics and have cemented strong ties between the people of Kosovo and America. Even after a determination of Kosovo's future status is made, we will remain committed to peace and stability there. As long as a NATO force is required, the U.S. plans to be part of it.

The U.S. currently has 1700 troops in KFOR down from a high of nearly 6,000 in 1999. During the past few years, we have been able to decrease gradually the level of NATO forces and we hope to make further reductions in 2006 as NATO shifts to a Task Force organization championed by Supreme Allied Commander General Jones.

Our Message to Kosovo Albanians

The U.S. has high expectations for both Serbs and Albanians as we begin the status process. I want to use this opportunity to repeat our messages to them.

In October I met with the Kosovo Albanian Team of Unity, established by President Rugova to lead talks. The challenge for the Kosovo Albanian community is for this team to live up to its name. As late as last week, there were troubling signs that Kosovo Albanian leaders are anything but unified. In my two trips to the region since June, my strong and repeated advice to them has been to put aside their political and personal differences. If Kosovo Albanians aspire to independence, this is their greatest opportunity to make the case to the world that, should they become independent, they will be able to govern effectively and in a way that promotes stability in the region.

I made clear to them that independence must be earned. First, Kosovo must continue to develop a functional, democratic government that can safeguard the rule of law. Second, there must be generous provisions for the security of minorities, including decentralized authority. Finally, Kosovo must be able to assure its neighbors that it will not export instability. The UN standards define the goals Kosovo should achieve in preparing for self government. Kosovo's progress in implementing these standards will be the ultimate measure of how well it makes its case.

I also urged the Kosovo Albanian leaders to be ready to compromise. Finding the right balance between majority rule and minority rights is never easy, but it must be done. To the south, Kosovo's Macedonian neighbors have made important progress in addressing the concerns of their Albanian minority -- progress that could provide some useful examples as Kosovo deals with the similar concerns of Serbs and other minorities.

Kosovo leaders should act now to create a positive environment for the status talks and make a convincing case that there would be a secure future for minorities should Kosovo become independent. They should announce that decentralization of government will be pursued throughout Kosovo, and that ethnic interests will be given consideration in drawing municipal boundaries. NATO acted in 1999 to prevent the ethnic cleansing of more than one million Kosovo Albanians and it would be a tragic irony if Albanians themselves now tried to inflict a policy of retribution and intimidation against their Serb minority. The U.S. and its allies will simply not tolerate such an outcome. They should also apprehend and punish those responsible for hate crimes committed against minorities in March 2004. They should state publicly that the independence they seek is only for Kosovo, without any changes to its present boundaries. No country, including the U.S. is prepared to support an irredentist "Greater Albania" or an independent Kosovo that aspires to exceed its present borders.

If Kosovo leaders want to present themselves as worthy of independence, they must stop all acts of violence and intimidation against minorities. Those responsible for such acts must understand that they are actually undermining the goals which they profess to support.

I warned them that an attempt by either side to use violence as a political tactic during the negotiation will be put down swiftly and firmly by NATO. Whatever the settlement of Kosovo's political status, it must remain multi-ethnic, and Serbs and Albanians need to work to create conditions under which they will be able to live together peacefully.

In June, I visited a Kosovo Serb family near Pristina. They had recently returned after being forced to flee and having their home destroyed in the March 2004 violence. This brave Serb family continues to have concerns for security and their future prosperity in Kosovo. Though their home had been rebuilt, their situation was still difficult. The Kosovar Albanians must make Serb families like this feel welcome and secure as a result of the settlement.

Our Messages to the Serbs

The Kosovo Serb community, and indeed the government of Serbia and Montenegro, must also assume a heavy share of responsibility for successful negotiations. When I met with Kosovar Serb leaders in October, I urged them to become more involved politically in Kosovo itself. Serbs have told me they would prefer local autonomy for themselves in Kosovo. If this is so, it is in their own interest to participate in the institutions of local government that will be responsible for a future Kosovo. By refusing to participate in elections and in the Kosovo Assembly, Kosovo Serbs are missing a chance to have a say in Kosovo's future.

Belgrade must also help Kosovo's Serbs ensure that they will have a place in whatever political structure emerges. I told Prime Minister Kostunica that his government's policy of having Serbs boycott elections and participation in the Kosovo Assembly has been a major miscalculation. The Serb community is losing political influence in Kosovo and there is now a net outflow of Serbs. As Kosovo will remain multi-ethnic, it will retain important connections with Serbia regardless of its political status. Many Kosovo Serbs will remain citizens of Serbia in any case and will need access to Serbian government services. Many important Serbian cultural sites, including some of the most historic Serbian Orthodox churches, are located in Kosovo. The Serb government will have to look for means to cooperate with a future Kosovo to preserve these cultural treasures. Belgrade will also want to engage in a discussion of security issues to ensure that settlement of Kosovo's status does not undermine the fragile stability of the region. Whatever Kosovo's future will be, Belgrade can best protect the interests of Serbs by encouraging them to participate in politics and begin to integrate themselves with their Kosovo Albanian neighbors.

Overall American Engagement in the Balkans

Mr. Chairman, while Kosovo's future status is the most serious issue to be resolved in Southeast Europe in 2006, there are three other issues that will also be important to building the stability and peace we seek for the region:

First, there will be no real peace in the Balkans until the countries of the region bring the most notorious war criminals to justice. Ten years after the massacre at Srebrenica, the two Serb leaders directly responsible remain at large. In Belgrade, I emphasized that those of us who are friends of Serbia want to see it shake off the remaining burden of the Milosevic era and take its rightful place as a European country, and keystone of stability and prosperity in the Balkans. The U.S. has been clear that Belgrade must comply with its obligations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Until the government turns over indicted mass murderer Ratko Mladic to the Hague, the U.S. will not agree to Serbia and Montenegro's participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace. The Serbs are making efforts to hold those accountable for crimes, but they must do more. Of course, the United States also remains determined to see Radovan Karadzic and Ante Gotovina brought to justice in the Hague, and we will continue pressing all concerned parties to see justice done.

Beyond a settlement in Kosovo and the arrest of the remaining war criminals, there is another diplomatic hurdle to a peaceful stable Balkans region in the future: a more unified Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ten years ago this month in Dayton, Ohio, the United States negotiated an end to the brutal war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was a remarkable diplomatic achievement by President Clinton, Secretary of State Christopher and its principal architect and negotiator, Richard Holbrooke. The Dayton Peace Accords have provided the foundation upon which the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have rebuilt their country and their lives. The Accords have allowed over a million people to return to their pre-war homes. On November 21-22, Secretary Rice and the Bosnia-Herzegovina leadership will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Dayton Accords in Washington, D.C. Secretary Rice will note the extraordinary progress that has been made but also focus on the efforts that still need to be made for Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a fully democratic country.

The Dayton Accords were never meant to be set in stone. The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have already recognized the need for reform if they are to join NATO and the EU. Just before my visit to Sarajevo in October, the Bosnian parliament voted overwhelming to create a single, unified army and defense ministry -- for the 10 years since Dayton, there have been two of each. They also agreed on the need to reform their police institutions consistent with EU standards, which has enabled the European Union to recommend launching negotiations on a Stabilization and Association Agreement with Bosnia-Herzegovina this year.

When the Bosnian leadership comes to Washington in two weeks, we will be asking them to embrace an even more ambitious vision erasing major political divisions by agreeing to a single Presidency, a stronger Prime Ministership and a reformed Parliament. When the Bosnian war stopped in November 1995, the ethnic divisions in the country were frozen in place. It is now time to remove the Berlin wall of separation between Bosnians and strengthen the institutions that will make Bosnia a true unified state in the future.

There is another issue that demands our attention in the Balkans, the status of Montenegro. The United States supports the Belgrade Agreement and the Serbia and Montenegro Constitutional Charter: documents that present the opportunity for either republic to hold a referendum on leaving the state union. The United States will support whatever solution the two republics agree on through democratic means, whether that is union or independence. Montenegrin officials have indicated their desire to hold a referendum in 2006 on independence. I told President Djukanovic last month that any referendum must be held peacefully, and as the result of a process that all sides accept as legitimate. The overarching U.S. goal is reform and progress toward Europe for both Serbia and Montenegro, in or outside the state union.

Conclusion

The people of the former Yugoslavia suffered through a decade of conflicts brought on by corrupt and cynical leaders who put their own power, greed and ethnic hatreds ahead of the interests of the people. From the ashes of the wars of the 1990s there is now new hope emerging. In my October visit to Sarajevo, Pristina and Belgrade, I made a point of meeting with students in each city who will soon be the leaders of their countries and I found these meetings to be extraordinarily encouraging. In Sarajevo, we met with young Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks who are working together to break down remaining ethnic differences. In Kosovo, I met with extraordinarily courageous high school students from Mitrovica. These Serbs and Albanians, separated by the physical bridge dividing their communities, are trying to create a virtual bridge of computer networks to unite them. I met with young Serbs at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade who did not hesitate to express their commitment to justice, peace and democracy for Serbia and the region. I was struck by the fact that in each of these three meetings, in three different places, these students, of all the people we met, were the most courageous in putting forward the proposition that people of different faiths and nationalities should be able to live together in the Balkans of the 21st century. I didn't hear this message from the political leaders, but I heard it loud and clear from the younger people. I hope that their voice and their vision of a more just and peaceful region will come to represent the future for Kosovo, for Bosnia-Herzegovina and for Serbia and Montenegro.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I look forward to taking your questions.

Released on November 8, 2005

MUP attacks KPS (Express)

Express writes on the front page that there was an exchange of fire that lasted for one hour between six uniformed Serbian hunters, who were dressed in MUP (Ministry of Internal Affairs) uniforms and the KPS in Obiliq.

The paper says that the hunters went within the fence of Kosova B Power Plant where they eventually got arrested by KPS officers. There were no injuries, and after the interrogations, their hunting weapons got confiscated and they were released.

Annan and Rossin praise mission of KPC (Bota Sot, Zëri)

Bota Sot writes that UN SG Kofi Annan, in the last letter to the President of the Security Council, praised efforts of the Kosovo Protection Corps in recruiting members from minority communities and in getting nearer to the goals set out by the international community in Kosovo. Annan, as reported in Bota, also noted the good cooperation between KPC and KFOR.

Zëri reports that PDSRSG Larry Rossin, in a lecture held before the organisation’s members, said that KPC is an institution that is continually making “valuable contribution” for Kosovo.

Nicholas Burns writes to Rugova (Zëri)

Zëri reports on the front page that the US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns has responded to Rugova’s letter, on behalf of the Contact Group, conveying the concern of the Contact Group that Kosovo has still not managed to overcome political and personal differences.

According to the paper’s sources Burns also briefs Rugova on the CG’s discussions in their last meeting on ten guiding principles for solution of Kosovo’s status.

Holbrooke Says Kosovo Should be Independent

Mr. Holbrooke
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, says Kosovo should become an independent state provided it guarantees the safety of minority Serbs as well as the security of Serbian religious and cultural monuments. Mr. Holbrooke spoke with Eurasian correspondent Jaroslaw Enders.

Mr. Holbrooke says Kosovo will become independent only if the government led by ethnic Albanians gives ironclad guarantees to the Serb minority. The Albanians, he says, have been making things harder for themselves by being aggressive towards the Serb minority. The Albanians need to recognize, he says, that they cannot drive the remaining Serbs out of Kosovo.

"It is obvious to anyone who has been in Kosovo and visited the religious monuments, that, like in Jerusalem, two different, ancient cultures coexisted on the same land and must continue to find a way to do so," Mr. Holbrooke says.

Kosovo is nominally still a province of Serbia. It has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 when a NATO military campaign on behalf of oppressed Albanians forced Serbian troops to withdraw. The United Nations is in the process of starting negotiations aimed at determining Kosovo's final status. Those talks could be completed by the middle of next year.

Mr. Holbrooke was the principal negotiator in drafting the 1995 Dayton accord that ended the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, another constituent part of the former Yugoslavia. While advocating eventual membership for all of the former Yugoslav republics in the European Union, Mr. Holbrooke says, with the notable exception of Slovenia, which has already joined, none of the western Balkan states are currently ready for membership.

"The European Union is an organization of states with common standards and values," Mr. Holbrooke says. "And that is not true in Serbia, that's not true in Bosnia, that's not true in Croatia. As long as things like Kosovo are unresolved, as long as the Serbs are behaving the way they behave in various parts of the Balkans, as long as a country exists called Serbia and Montenegro, a country that exists only on paper and does not function as a country, the European Union would be taking a serious risk in bringing (such) places in."

But Mr. Holbrooke says he hopes all of the Balkan nations will one day join the E.U.

EU appoints Austrian as representative to Kosovo status talks

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union on Monday appointed one of its top Balkan specialists, Stefan Lehne, as its representative in upcoming U.N. talks on whether Kosovo should become independent or remain linked to Serbia.

Lehne, an Austrian, currently serves as director for southeastern Europe in the secretariat of the EU's council and is a senior adviser to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

He was appointed by EU foreign ministers, who also gave their full backing to former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari as the chief U.N. envoy overseeing the Kosovo status talks expected to start this month.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 when a NATO bombing campaign halted a crackdown by Serbian troops on ethnic Albanian separatists. The territory's Serb minority wants to keep a link with Serbia, while the majority Albanians seek independence.

The EU foreign ministers restated the EU's position that a status settlement should respect the rights of all minorities. They said Kosovo could not return to the pre-1999 situation of direct rule from Serbia, nor be partitioned nor united with any other country.

Although the bloc has not taken a public position on independence, EU officials increasingly believe it is inevitable, given the ethnic-Albanian's hostility to restoration of ties with Belgrade. The ministers' statement said the eventual solution of Kosovo's status should leave open the prospect of both Serbia and Kosovo joining the EU.

Serbs offer Kosovo own household under same roof

By Beti Bilandzic

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia told Russia on Monday that it had no intention of trying to re-impose its will on Kosovo Albanians but could not allow them to change Serbia's borders by declaring the province independent.

Talks to determine Kosovo's "final status" are due to start later this month, conducted by newly appointed U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari. Serbian President Boris Tadic has warned that major powers might impose a solution if the two sides fail to agree.

"It is neither Serbia's intention nor wish to rule over the Albanian majority in Kosovo and we emphasise the right of the Albanian people to organise their own life there," Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said.

But he said Albanian rights do not include "terrorising" Serbs, trampling on the United Nations charter or "changing the internationally recognised borders of our state".

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999 when NATO bombing compelled former president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces. Some 10,000 civilians were killed during his two-year crackdown on an Albanian guerrilla insurgency.

Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority has been clamouring for independence ever since.

Serbia offers far-reaching autonomy but not a separate country, which would require altering the borders of the internationally recognised, democratic state of Serbia and Montenegro.

CONCRETE PROPOSALS REQUIRED

Draskovic was speaking at a news conference with counterpart Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Serbia's traditional Security Council ally and member of the big power Contact Group (United States, Italy, Germany, France, Britain and Russia) which will oversee the talks.

"No solution can be imposed. It can only be the result of direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina (Kosovo's provincial capital)," Lavrov said.

Russia supported Belgrade's concept of "less than independence but more than autonomy", he added. But "we need this concept to be translated into specific proposals and we hope that our friends in Belgrade will do so".

In line with Contact Group guidelines, Lavrov said that partition of Kosovo, where 100,000 Serbs live next to two million ethnic Albanians, should be ruled out. He was due to visit Kosovo later in the day.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has said no one wants partition, neither his government nor the international community nor the Kosovo Albanians.

But deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus -- an influential liberal in Serbia's centre-right ruling coalition -- has raised the possibility of dividing Kosovo into two "entities", the formula used in neighbouring Bosnia to accommodate Serbs, Muslims and Croats in one state after their 1992-95 war.

Americans train Kosovo negotiators (Koha)

The paper says that OSCE has organized training sessions for Kosovo Assembly members and representatives of political parties on negotiations techniques. The sessions undertaken by Paul Williams and Sean Burns, according to the paper, aim at training participants on harmonization of political stands and identification of problems in Kosovo society.

PDK senior official Hajredin Kuqi is said to be satisfied with the trainings adding that such trainings facilitate the negotiations process. AAK and ORA representatives are of the same opinion says the paper.

The paper writes that OSCE officials neither confirmed nor denied the information. Sources told the paper that American trainers expressed their dissatisfaction at the lack of a negotiations platform and assessed as necessary preparing of a list of Kosovo society’s concerns which would be presented to Martti Ahtisaari.

Jim Sweigert, US envoy for Kosovo status? (Koha Ditore)

According to Koha Ditore, former US diplomat Jim Sweigert is one of the candidates to join Ahtisaari’s team in negotiations on Kosovo’s status. The paper quotes ISN Security Watch as reporting on the information. However, the White House still has not made official the appointment of a candidate, but it has ruled out the possibility that US Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns could hold this post.

Russian Foreign Min Visiting Serbia-Montenegro, Kosovo

BELGRADE (AP)--The Russian foreign minister was arriving Sunday for a two-day visit to Serbia-Montenegro and Kosovo for talks on the future status of the ethnically divided province, the foreign ministry in Belgrade said.

During the visit, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov planned to meet top officials in Belgrade and Podgorica - the capitals of Serbia and Montenegro - as well as ethnic Albanian leaders in Pristina, Kosovo's provincial capital.

Kosovo is still formally part of the two-member union that succeeded Yugoslavia, but has been run by the United Nations and NATO since a 1999 Alliance bombing campaign halted ex-President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

Belgrade has had no authority over Kosovo for more than six years, but wants to keep at least formal control over it as most Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of their history and culture.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership has insisted on nothing less than full independence.

The U.N. Security Council has approved the start of talks later this month to determine the final status of the majority ethnic Albanian province.

Russia maintains a significant role both in the Security Council and in the so-called Kosovo Contact Group, a collection of U.S. and European diplomats advising on how to resolve Kosovo's status. The group is working in cooperation with former Finnish President Martii Attishari, to be the chief U.N. envoy overseeing the Kosovo status talks.

Belgrade, with historical Slavic ties to Russia, may look to Moscow for support in contending that an independent Kosovo would constitute unlawful secession.

Lavrov's official meetings in Belgrade are scheduled for Monday, when he will also address media together with Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Kostunica and Tadic to co-chair Serbian negotiations team (Zëri)

Quoting a report from Belgrade’s B92, Zëri writes that the Serbian Government has appointed members for its negotiations team on Kosovo and that the Serbian President and Prime Minister will jointly lead the team. The paper notes that all political parties represented in the Serbian Parliament have been given the right to have a seat in the team but the representation of Kosovo Serbs is not yet clear. In a separate piece, Zëri reports, quoting Podgorica daily Dan, that former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger may be appointed as advisor to the Serbian team.

Contact Group to have central role in Kosovo status talks (dailies)

Dailies quote spokesman of US State Department Sean McCormack in saying that Contact Group will have a central role in the process of Kosovo status talks while UN envoy Martti Ahitsaari is expected to have a lead role in the process. Koha Ditore quotes an EU diplomatic source saying that CG agrees that Ahtisaari is to decide on the intensity and flow of talks on future status.

Zëri and Express report that EU will be appointing their envoy for Kosovo status talks on Monday, a post which most likely will be entrusted to EU diplomat Stephan Lehne.

Approaching Europe - The Economist

Nov 3rd 2005 | SKOPJE
From The Economist print edition


The countries of the western Balkans get nearer to Brussels

WHEN French and Dutch voters rejected the European Union constitution, the shockwaves were swiftly felt in the Balkans. In 2003 EU leaders had promised the region eventual membership. Was that promise now going to be broken? Surprisingly, several events in the past month suggest that it will be kept. Many years, and many pitfalls, lie ahead. But, despite resistance in some quarters, EU policymakers seem to have decided that it is better to have these countries inside the club, rather than causing trouble outside.

A look at the map explains why. In 2007 Romania and Bulgaria are due to join the EU, although that date may slip to 2008. The remaining Balkan countries will then be encircled by the EU. Unless they have a genuine prospect of membership, that could have serious consequences. With some 22m people penned inside a kind of poor Balkan reservation, inter-ethnic conflict, smuggling and organised crime would be certain to flourish. Compared with the cost of all that, EU membership might look quite cheap.

Following this logic, Croatia won the go-ahead for formal membership talks last month. A week later, Serbia and Montenegro began preliminary talks that should lead to eventual membership. On October 21st Bosnia was told that it too could begin preliminary talks. And next week the European Commission will give its opinion on Macedonia's application for membership.

It is no coincidence that these things are happening now. The decision on Croatia helped to win Austria round to the opening of talks with Turkey. Encouragement of Serbia was a way of counteracting the news that the United Nations secretary-general had been authorised to start talks on the future of Kosovo, whose population is over 90% ethnic Albanian. Kosovo looks set for some form of independence against Serbia's wishes; next year Montenegro may also hold a vote on independence. These events may be less unpalatable if Serbia sees EU membership ahead.

In Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, the international pro-consul, says that a slew of much-needed reforms in the past two years were pushed through only because the country's leaders understood that they were the price of EU membership. A similar lure has worked in Macedonia. From the brink of all-out civil war in 2001, ethnic Albanians and Macedonians have worked together in government largely because of their common hopes of joining the EU. All sides are now praying that the commission will give a positive opinion and that, in December, EU leaders will award Macedonia its coveted candidate status. Yet most diplomats reckon that the Macedonians may get an amber not a green light—that is to say, a yes to candidacy but with no promise of a date to begin talks. And some EU countries are still against even this.

The experience of new countries in the EU is that the conditions of membership have been sufficiently tightly drawn to help transform them into modern states. This is the path that Balkan political leaders want to follow. But, just when they want it most, money to ease the pain of reforms in areas that need it, such as agriculture, may turn out not to be there.

The problem is that only countries that are officially candidates for membership are due to receive significant amounts of aid. According to the European Stability Initiative, a Berlin-based think-tank, aid to Bulgaria should rise from €300m ($340m) in 2003 to some €1.6 billion by 2009; but aid to Serbia, with a similar population, will drop from €240m to €117m in the same period. This, argues the think-tank, is the sort of short-term thinking that will do nothing to prevent the region—and the EU as a whole—from storing up more Balkan problems later on.

State Dep. Daily Press Briefing - Remarks on Kosovo

QUESTION: Could you give us a read-out on the meeting on Kosovo that was held last night?

MR. MCCORMACK: Be happy to. Let me get the information here for you.

Under Secretary Nick Burns hosted the political directors from the Kosovo Contact Group. That would include the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Russia and the EU. This also included representatives from NATO and the UN. They obviously discussed the situation in Kosovo. They also discussed with Martti Ahtisaari, whom the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan intends to appoint as a special envoy for Kosovo status talks, the process for beginning negotiations on Kosovo's future political status and principles that should guide this process.

I think among the read I got out of the meeting, George, was that the group reaffirmed its commitment to be centrally involved in the future status talks while recognizing the leading role of the UN special envoy.

I think that, from our point of view, the status outcome has to -- our goal for this entire process is for the parties to reach an agreement through negotiation and compromise that will provide the people of Kosovo and their neighbors with a secure and democratic future and that Kosovo's future status must aid in stabilizing this region while advancing the region's Euro-Atlantic integration.

QUESTION: Under Secretary Burns at one point said that there will be a U.S. envoy to guide this process. Has that been decided on yet?

MR. MCCORMACK: It has not finally been decided. I can say that it won't be him, that he is -- he will look to -- he, in consultation with the Secretary, will look to name somebody in the near future. We'll keep you updated when we've got a name for you.

QUESTION: President Rugova of Kosovo, as I understand it, he sent Mr. Burns a letter on Monday saying that independence is the only way out of this situation. What do you have to say about that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I have to -- let me talk to Under Secretary Burns about the letter. I hadn't talked to him about that. I kind of outlined how we view the outcome. It has to be a negotiated outcome that fits the criteria that I just talked about.

Yes, sir.

MacShane: Kosovo should get independence as soon as possible (Zëri)

Zëri reports that during a debate in the British Parliament, the British Minister for Europe Denis MacShane has stated that Kosovo should become an independent state as soon as possible. According to Zëri, MacShane also said that “the semi-status as a child of the United Nations, without the authority of a state to adopt laws and to take over the responsibility for building relations with neighbouring countries cannot last for long.”

Ahtisaari to arrive in Pristina on 10-12 November? (Zëri)

Zëri quotes Western sources as saying that Martti Ahtisaari, the UN special envoy on Kosovo’s status, is planning to visit the region on 10-12 November. The paper notes that the former Finnish President is expected to visit Pristina and Belgrade to hold the first meetings with the negotiations team of Kosovo and Serbia and to get acquainted with the initial positions of both teams.

The same sources told Zëri that Ahtisaari might not come to Pristina on those dates because it still remains unclear how his team will be organised.

Press coverage on Contact Group meeting in Washington

The leading story in all daily newspapers today is the coverage of the meeting of the Contact Group in Washington.

Zëri quotes the BBC Serbian section as saying that within the Contact Group there is still no consensus on the modalities of the negotiating process on Kosovo’s status and on the competences of Ahtisaari and the special emissaries of Washington, Brussels and Moscow. According to the BBC, Ahtisaari insists that he has the main word on talks, whereas the US wants all mediators to have the same competences and for Ahtisaari to be first among equals.

“American and European diplomats are comparing notes in efforts to find a solution for the status,” Zëri quotes an AP report. Express reports that the CG has failed to reach an agreement on the ten non-negotiable principles for talks on Kosovo’s status. The draft ten principles, which was adopted in the meeting in Rome, didn’t get the final approval due to disagreements and requests by some members for addendums and amendments, says the paper.

A diplomat in Pristina, whose government is represented in the Contact Group, told Express that the next CG meeting will be held very soon. The diplomat, who preferred to remain anonymous, also said that agreement has been reached for full co-ordination between Ahtisaari and the CG during the negotiations process.

One of the leading headlines in Lajm is Ahtisaari wants to be in the lead, US favours equality.

Koha Ditore quotes sources in the European Union as saying that there have been no disagreements in the CG meeting in Washington. “An agreement has been reached at the meeting and this will soon be seen in the document that will be prepared with the guidelines for negotiations. The document wasn’t issued immediately due to some minor changes in the guidelines, but this doesn’t mean that there were disagreements,” European diplomats told the paper.

Koha Ditore also quotes diplomatic sources in Brussels as saying that the EU has agreed to appoint Stephan Lehne as its envoy for the talks. Lehne is EU High Representative Javier Solana’s top advisor and has tremendous experience in the Balkans.

Bota Sot quotes NATO sources as ruling out media reports that NATO wants to be represented in the negotiations team. The paper however says that the US is in favour of NATO’s representation in the negotiations team and that France is against the proposal.

Montenegro Won't Take Part In Coming Kosovo Talks -PM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP)--Montenegrin officials will not take part in coming talks on the future of the contested Kosovo province, the republic's prime minister said Thursday.

Milo Djukanovic said that the issue of Kosovo - Serbia's southern province which has been run by the United Nations since 1999 - is Serbia's problem and that Serbia should deal with it.

"We believe that this is the issue that should be handled by Serbia and that the (negotiating) team should be led by the people from Serbia," Djukanovic said at a news conference.

Montenegro and Serbia together form the Serbia-Montenegro union.

The Balkan country also formally includes the U.N.-run province of Kosovo. But the province's final status remains a contested issue as its majority ethnic Albanians want to split from Serbia while Belgrade wishes to retain at least formal control.

Kosovo has been run by the U.N. and NATO since 1999, when the alliance bombed Serbia for 78 days to end a crackdown by then-president Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanian rebels.

The U.N. Security Council has endorsed the start of the talks on Kosovo and appointed former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari as a special envoy.

Djukanovic said that it is "in the interest of Montenegro that the Kosovo issue be solved next year." He added that Kosovo is "the only remaining security problem in the Balkans."

Djukanovic's government also wants to split Montenegro from the union with Serbia. The authorities have tentatively scheduled a referendum on the issue for early next year, but have faced pressure from the European Union to postpone it until the end of the Kosovo talks.

E.U. leaders fear that Montenegro's independence from Serbia-Montenegro union could lead to more instability in the volatile Balkans.

SERB COUNTER-OFFENSIVE AS KOSOVO STATUS TALKS NEAR

Belgrade, 3 Nov. (AKI) - After persistent demands by ethnic Albanian leaders for the province of Kosovo independence, supported by shady paramilitary groups which have appeared in the province, Serbian leaders in Belgrade have finally joined forces to chart an apparent diplomatic counter- offensive to retain Kosovo within Serbian state boundaries.

Serbia-Montenegro's president, Svetozar Marovic, called the meeting of the country’s top leaders late on Wednesday to name Belgrade's negotiating team and finalise a strategy for the upcoming talks on the final status of Kosovo - which has been under United Nations administration since 1999. Marovic, Serbia's prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, and his Montenegrin counterpart, Milo Djukanovic, and the presidents of both republics, Boris Tadic, and Filip Vujanovic, attended.

The statement released after the closed-door meeting revealed few details. To solve the Kosovo problem, "compromises should be sought, in which there would be no imposed solution,” it said. The leaders were unanimous in backing Kostunica’s stands as presented to the UN Security Council last week that ethnic Albanians should get broad autonomy, but not independence.

But the Belgrade daily Blic, quoting unnamed government sources, said on Thursday that Belgrade's negotiating team had been put in place, although it released no names. Belgrade negotiators would also have an international expert as advisor, but his name will be made public only after the parliament approves Serbia's “strategy and tactics” for the talks. Parliament could pass a resolution opposing Kosovo's secession, to counter a pro-independence resolution being tabled by Kosovo's parliament, political analysts said.

Ethnic Albanian politicians in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, have recently come under pressure from a paramilitary group, which calls itself The Army for the Independence of Kosovo (AIK), to proclaim independence or face a “difficult situation”. But a spokesman for the international military force in Kosovo (Kfor), Pio Sabetta, told journalists in Pristina that the threats were being investigated, adding: “those people can’t influence the security situation in Kosovo”.

His UN administration (Unmik) colleague, Niraaj Singh, said that such threats might become a “daily event” during status talks. But, “regardless of media commentaries, electronic messages and other forms of pressure, the decision on Kosovo's status will not be made in the street, or through internet,” he added, in a clear reference to the AIK threats.

Meanwhile, special UN representative in Kosovo's status talks, former president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, met with representatives of a six-nation Contact Group for Kosovo in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the framework for the talks. But issues concerning Ahtisaari's remit immediately arose, as he reportedly wants to lead the talks, while the United States sees his role as “first among equals”, and wants him to share decision-making with special envoys to be appointed by Washington, Moscow and the European Union.

Opening an eastern diplomatic front, Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic told the Moscow daily Rossiyskaya gazzeta on Wednesday that granting Kosovo independence would be a dangerous precedent which would lead “the malign tumor to metastasis”. It would, in his word “darken the perspective of the entire region,” and instead of bringing the Balkans closer to Europe, “would Balkanize Europe”, Draskovic said.

Fearful of loosing Kosovo, Belgrade sees a possible Moscow veto in the Security Council as a 'safety net' to prevent this happening.

Four Prime Ministers to meet in Pristina (Koha Ditore)

Koha Ditore reports that after two weeks of preparations, the Prime Ministers of Albania, FYROM and Montenegro have confirmed their participation in a meeting hosted by Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi in Pristina on Saturday. The meeting will focus on further steps toward Euro-Atlantic integrations.

Citing sources in the Kosovo Government, Koha Ditore says that Albanian PM Berisha and FYROM PM Buckovski have officially confirmed their participation, while the Montenegrin PM Milo Djukanovic still hasn’t done so due to protocol procedures. A member of Djukanovic’s cabinet told the paper that they have received the invitation and will make an announcement on Djukanovic’s participation one day before the meeting.

The same sources told Koha Ditore that PM Kosumi’s plan is to turn the informal meeting into a series of regular meetings that will be held in the future at this level.

Contact Group sets out ten leading principles for Kosovo status (Zëri)

Zëri says it has managed to obtain through diplomatic sources a draft of the document that is expected to be presented to international chief negotiator Martti Ahtisaari.

The paper highlights the sixth principle: the following is the list of Contact Group principles as presented by Zëri.

1. Kosovo’s status should be fully compatible with the international standards of human rights, democracy and international laws that will contribute to safety in the region.
2. Kosovo status should be in conformity with European values and standards and should contribute to achieving a European perspective for Kosovo., namely through the process of Stabilization-Association, and general integration into the European Union.
3. Solution of Kosovo status should provide sustainable multi-ethnicity in Kosovo, and the process should ensure mechanisms and guarantees for implementation of human rights, minority rights and the rights of refugees and IDPs to return to their homes.
4. Solution reached should allow all communities in Kosovo representation in the Government at all levels. Effective structures of self-government should facilitate co-existence of various communities and full access to public services through the process of decentralization.
5. Solution should include special guarantees for protection of cultural and religious heritage.
6. Definition of status definition of Kosovo’s status should strengthen regional security and will ensure that Kosovo will not return to situation pre-1999. Any decision that is unilateral or a result of use of force will be unacceptable. There will be no changes in the current territory of Kosovo, which means there will be no division of Kosovo or unification with any state or with any part of any state.
7. It will ensure security in Kosovo, and will also ensure that Kosovo will not pose a military or security threat to its neighbors.
8. Definition of Kosovo status will advance efficient mechanisms to enforce rule of law, to fight organized crime and to maintain the multiethnic character of police and judiciary.
9. Definition of Kosovo status will ensure that Kosovo can develop economically and politically and will be able to cooperate with international financial institutions.
10. Kosovo will continue to need international presence, civilian and military for some more time.

Drafts for two new ministries in New York (Koha)

Koha reports that the draft proposal for the establishment of the new Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior will be sent to New York for further analysis during next week.

The paper quotes the PM’s Legal Affairs Advisor Azem Hajdari as saying that there are no disagreements between the Government and UNMIK Pillar I and that New York is expected to approve the draft.

Contact Group leading principles still unclear

Koha reports that the CG closed meeting hosted by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns has revealed contradictions among its members on Martti Ahtisaari’s deputies and the role of CG member states during status talks.

According to the paper CG member states haven’t yet managed to harmonize their position as regards Ahtisaari’s authority. Reliable sources told the paper that Ahtisaari warned that he wouldn’t want any member of the CG to interfere in his ‘autonomy or dictate to him’.

The same sources told the paper that Ahtisaari didn’t oppose the candidature of EU Special Envoy Albert Rohan for his deputy.

Kosova Sot writes that the outcome of the meeting will be communicated after a few days.

US, Europe Diplomats Meet On Efforts To Reach Kosovo Deal

WASHINGTON (AP)--U.S. and European diplomats are comparing notes on efforts to achieve a political settlement in Kosovo.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns hosted a dinner Wednesday at a Washington restaurant for colleagues from Britain, France, Italy, Russia and Germany.

All the countries are members of the Kosovo Contact Group, which was set up to offer advice on settling the status of the predominantly ethnic Albanian province of Serbia.

Joining the discussion was Martti Attishari, expected to be appointed chief envoy overseeing the Kosovo status talks this year. A NATO representative also attended.

In a letter to Burns on Monday, Kosovo's president, Ibrahim Rugova, said the province's political forces and people "remain committed to work closely with you.

"The people of Kosovo are determined to have an independent and sovereign state," Rugova said.

He added that such a state would respect the rights of all its people including minorities, fight organized crime and terrorism and ensure good neighborly relations with all the countries in the region, including Serbia.

There is strong Serbian opposition to creation of an independent Kosovo from the province in which a 1999 NATO air war ended an ethnic crackdown by Yugoslavia's Serb leader, Slobodan Milosevic.

Wednesday's talks occurred a week after the U.N. Security Council endorsed starting talks on Kosovo's future.

The ethnically divided province has been run by the U.N. since the NATO air war.

Kosovo Decides To Sell Ferro-nickel Plant Ferronikeli to British Alferon

PRISTINA (Serbia and Montenegro), November 2 (SeeNews) - The Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA), charged with the sale of hundreds of state-owned companies in the U.N.-run Serbian province, decided to to sell the ferro-nickel plant Ferronikeli to UK-based Alferon, an official said on Wednesday.

"KTA's board of directors decided to authorise its management to sign the final contract with Alferon," a KTA official, who declined to be named, told SeeNews.

KTA revised in July its choice of buyer picking the second-highest bid of 33 million euro ($39.99 million), made by Alferon, "because the highest bidder [the Albanian-based Adi Nikel] doesn't have a valid consortium anymore," KTA spokeswoman Renate Schmidt said earlier in July.

Ferronikeli workers have protested the sale since early July, when the first-ranked bidder was disqualified. They allege the decision to pursue Alferon was politically motivated.

According to KTA's requirements, the buyer is to invest at least 20 million euro in the plant over the first three years after the purchase and to employ 1,000 at the end of the first year.

Ferronikeli ore mining and metallurgical complex was set up in 1984 to produce ferro-nickel for exports. It produced and exported 6,800 tonnes a year of nickel, in ferro-nickel ingots, before the 1990s but since 1998 it has been idle.

Ferronikeli has three open pit mines: the Dushkaja mine with estimated reserves of 6.2 million tones; the Suka mine - 0.8 million tonnes and the Gllavica with 6.8 million tones.

All the mines in the complex were covered early this year with exploration and exploitation licence by the Ministry of Energy and Mining of Kosovo.

Kosovo: Annan to name veteran trouble-shooter Ahtisaari to lead status talks

1 November 2005 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan has informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, a veteran United Nations trouble-shooter, as his Special Envoy to lead the political process to determine the future status of the ethnically divided, UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo.

"Mr. Ahtisaari's excellent negotiating skills, proven leadership, previous experience with the United Nations and knowledge of the Balkans make him the ideal person for this endeavour," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the daily noon briefing of the former president, who led the UN operation that oversaw Namibia's independence from South Africa in 1990.

The Security Council last week endorsed the start of talks on the future status of the province where ethnic Albanians outnumber others, mainly Serbs, by about nine to one, and which the UN has run since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove out Yugoslav troops amid grave human rights abuses in fighting between Albanians and Serbs in 1999.

Mr. Annan has said status options could include independence, a position rejected by Serbia, or autonomy, and Mr. Annan's Special Representative for Kosovo, Søren Jessen-Petersen, has warned of possible provocations from all sides during the process.

Mr. Ahtisaari has most recently served as Mr. Annan's Special Envoy for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa. From 1977 to 1981 he served as UN Commissioner for Namibia. In 1984 he became the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Namibia and from 1989 to 1990 headed the UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in the southern African country.

He was appointed Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management in 1987, a position he held until 1991. In 1993 he served as the Secretary-General's Special Representative for the former Yugoslavia.

Mr. Ahtisaari has also served in crises positions outside the UN, including inspection of Irish Republican Army (IRA) arms dumps. He was chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Working Group of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia in 1992-93.

Mr. Ahtisaari, who was President of Finland from 1994 to 2000, is chairman of the international board of the War-Torn Societies Project.

FACTBOX-Five facts on Kosovo status envoy Ahtisaari

Nov 1 (Reuters) - Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari has been picked as the United Nations special envoy to lead talks on the status of Kosovo. Here are five facts about the veteran diplomat.

* Ahtisaari will be returning to the unresolved problem that provoked NATO's first war in 1999, when he made it clear to President Slobodan Milosevic that pulling Serb forces out of Kosovo was the only way to stop NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia which lasted 11 weeks.

* Before becoming the EU envoy to Kosovo, he was best known abroad for his work in Africa, especially his role as a U.N. official in negotiations on the independence of Namibia from South African rule in 1990.

* Ahtisaari, 68, returned to the international spotlight this year when he organised talks between Indonesia's government and the Free Aceh Movement, who signed a peace deal in August to end a 30-year uprising.

* During his 1994-2000 term as president of Finland, he led the country into the European Union and eurozone, becoming known as a no-nonsense statesman at ease with world affairs.

* He bowed out of national politics in 2000 to work with international organisations promoting peace and crisis resolution, accepting projects in Northern Ireland, Israel and the Horn of Africa.

UN picks Finland's Ahtisaari to lead Kosovo talks

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has chosen former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari to lead negotiations on the future of Serbia's disputed Kosovo province, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The U.N. Security Council gave the green light to negotiations on Kosovo's future status on Oct. 24 following warnings from Washington and Brussels that the status quo -- characterized by latent violence, economic stagnation and widespread frustration -- was no longer sustainable.

Western powers have refused to commit publicly to any particular solution, but diplomats say they will push for the creation of a separate state under continued international supervision and backed by an extended NATO peace force.

Annan announced Ahtisaari's appointment in a letter to the 15-nation Security Council which added that Albert Rohan, a former secretary-general of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, would serve as Ahtisaari's deputy.

U.N. officials in Pristina said Ahtisaari, who returns to Balkan peacekeeping after six years, would most likely set up base in Vienna and was expected in Kosovo later this month.

Ahtisaari was the European Union envoy who delivered terms to Slobodan Milosevic in 1999 when the Serbian president, under the pressure of 11 weeks of NATO bombing, withdrew his forces from the majority Albanian province following the failure of months of shuttle diplomacy and top-level peace talks.

The humanitarian intervention was intended to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians by Serb troops locked in a two-year conflict with separatist rebels.

Still legally part of Serbia but administered by the United Nations, Kosovo's 2 million ethnic Albanians -- 90 percent of the population -- are demanding independence.

Serbs, however, see the mountain-ringed province with its scores of centuries-old Orthodox religious sites as the cradle of their nation and say it must remain a part of Serbia.

Diplomats say Ahtisaari, who this year helped negotiate an end to 30 years of armed conflict in the Indonesian region of Aceh, will push for a deal on Kosovo status by mid-2006.

The job description set out by Annan says that it was up to Ahtisaari to set the pace of the talks. "The special envoy will have maximum leeway in order to undertake his task, but is expected to revert to the secretary-general at all stages of the process," it said.

Annan turns to veteran peace broker for tough Kosovo talks

Annan turns to veteran peace broker for tough Kosovo talks

HELSINKI, Nov 1 (AFP) -

Martti Ahtisaari, who on Tuesday was appointed United Nations mediator in negotiations on the final status of Kosovo, has criss-crossed the globe from Asia and Northern Ireland in a tireless crusade for democracy and reconciliation.

In Kosovo, his name was on everyone's lips after he helped push through a peace plan with Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia in 1999.

On March 24 that year, NATO launched air strikes against Belgrade in an attempt to bring an end to the clashes between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians.

After three months of bombing, Russia and the European Union decided to present Milosevic with a peace plan, and determined that then Finnish president Ahtisaari was the man for the job.

He arrived in Belgrade on June 2, and within a few hours managed to convince the Serbian president to accept a deal requiring his troops to leave Kosovo. NATO halted its bombing campaign on June 10.

"I later realized that my role in Belgrade was almost that of a pastor who teaches confirmation classes ... The pastor reviews the Ten Commandments and there are always kids who ask what this or that means, and he explains it to them," Ahtisaari told French newspaper Le Monde shortly thereafter.

Ahtisaari, who served as Finnish president from 1994 to 2000, has for decades been called upon by the international community to resolve conflicts.

His name is often mentioned in the same breath as other Nordic peace advocates such as Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden, who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis during World War II, the first secretary general of the United Nations Trygve Lie of Norway, and Lie's successor Dag Hammarskjoeld of Sweden.

"Peace cannot be brokered by a person who has a need to promote himself. Job satisfaction must be found not in the praise of outside parties but in something else. These things are not ego trips," the peace-broker said recently.

The heavyset diplomat was born on June 23, 1937 in Vyborg, the capital of Karelia, a province Finland was forced to cede to the Soviet Union following World War II.

Along with 400,000 other Finns, he and his family were forced to flee the city ahead of advancing Soviet troops, and were never able to return.

He went on to work as a teacher in Pakistan for three years in the 1960s before kicking off his diplomatic career.

In 1973, he was appointed ambassador to Tanzania, before joining the United Nations in 1976.

Except for a six-year interlude when he served as president of Finland, Ahtisaari has remained with the world body since, spending most of his career outside his native Finland.

He is perhaps best known for his mediation efforts in Namibia, where he served as UN commissioner from 1977 to 1981 and guided the country down the path to its 1990 independence from South Africa as the UN special representative.

In 1987, then UN secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar named the Finn the UN undersecretary general for administration and management, a post he held until 1991.

Since leaving the office of Finnish president in 2000, Ahtisaari has repeatedly been called upon by the international community, including to oversee the disarmament of the Irish Republican Army and to lead a fact-finding team investigating the razing by Israeli troops of the Palestinian refugee camp Jenin.

Most recently, the Finn this year mediated a peace deal between the Indonesian government and rebels from Aceh province, whose 30-year armed conflict has claimed the lives of about 15,000 people.

Ahtisaari, who is married and the father of one son, now heads the Crisis Management Initiative, a non-governmental organization he created and which recently chaired the Aceh peace talks.

KOSOVO: UN OFFICIAL JAILED FOR SEXUAL ABUSE

An official of the United Nations mission in Kosovo (Unmik), Rashidon Khan, has been sentenced to three years in jail for molesting a minor, his lawyer Tom Gashi said Monday night. Khan, a Pakistani, was arrested last January on charges of molesting a person less than 16 years of age and of falsifying an official document. He pleaded guilty to both charges, said Gashi.

At the time of arrest Khan was the head of Pristina office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but there was no comment from Unmik.

Gashi said Khan was sentenced on Monday by a three-judge council, comprising two local and an international judge.

Allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN staff more than doubled last year, UN secretary general Kofi Annan said in a report in May.

Most of the allegations, which include rape, sexual assault and sex with minors, involved UN peacekeepers. In June, the UN Security Council held its first ever session dedicated to the issue.

Prince Zeid Raad Zeid al-Hussein, special advisor to the secretary general on sexual abuse within the UN, said however rare they may be, abuses by peacekeepers were not only repugnant, but tarnished the credibility of both the operation in question and the United Nations as a whole.

Kosovo Hails Naming Of Ex-Finnish President To Lead Talks

PRISTINA (AP)--Leaders in Kosovo welcomed the appointment of the former Finnish president Tuesday to lead negotiations on resolving the disputed province's future status.

Serbia's leaders, on the other hand, expressed caution over his nomination. Martti Ahtisaari's appointment, which had been widely expected, cleared the way for the negotiations to begin almost immediately on whether the province becomes independent as demanded by ethnic Albanians or whether Serbia retains some formal control over it.

Ethnic Albanian leaders said they expected Ahtisaari to respect the majority's will for independence, while officials in Serbia urged him to comply with his mandate.

"We believe that Ahtisaari...will set up the framework for the resolution of Kosovo's status on the basis of a set of principles - the main one being the respect for the will of the majority of the people of Kosovo," said Muhamet Hamiti, the spokesman for Kosovo's president Ibrahim Rugova.

Serbia-Montenegro's Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, whose country viewed Ahtisaari's appointment with suspicion, said the envoy's mandate stems from the U.N. Security Council, so "he will abide by that mandate because he must".

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica only reiterated Serbia's stand on Kosovo.

"Serbia is determined to keep Kosovo and it is clear there can be no snatching of our territory and no divisions of Serbia," Kostunica said while visiting the Orthodox Christian sanctuary of Mount Athos in northern Greece.

Nenad Djurdjevic, independent analyst from the Forum for Ethnic Relations group, said Ahtisaari's appointment "should not necessarily be viewed so negatively" by Belgrade.

"At the beginning, Ahtisaari's job would be to determine the stands of Belgrade, Pristina and the Kosovo Serbs, as well as the ability of each side to compromise," he said.

Ahtisaari, among the world's most famed mediators, has dealt with Kosovo in the past.

In 1999, Ahtisaari negotiated a deal with then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that put an end to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of Serb forces - a campaign aimed at stopping the crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

That deal put Kosovo under U.N. administration but left its status unresolved.

The U.N. has administered Kosovo since NATO's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia. The NATO bombardment forced former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end a crackdown on rebel ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and relinquish control over the region.

Athens to announce its ‘plan’ on Kosovo status (Koha Ditore)

Koha Ditore reports that Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis said on Monday after meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, that his Government is discussing a proposal for Kosovo based on five points. The Greek Government officially supports Kostunica’s position on Kosovo, and they will use their international links to contribute to a solution to Kosovo status, Koha quotes Serbian media as reporting.

The first point of the ‘Greek plan’, according to Karamanlis, is that “all the sides, especially the Serbian side should be fully involved in the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo”. The second point is that the future status of Kosovo should be in compliance with the UN principles and linked to the perspective of bringing the region into Euro-Atlantic institutions, and that it (status of Kosovo) should strengthen stability in the region. The third point foresees that Kosovo should have a “more effective decentralization and European standards of ensuring minority rights and security for Kosovo Serb”, while the fourth point mentions “preservation of cultural heritage and reconstruction of orthodox sites”, and the fifth point of the Greek project for the Balkans is for “EU to have a strong leading role…as solution [for Kosovo] cannot be permanent and sustainable unless it is within the European framework based on European principles and rules.

Kosovo asks negotiators to be more responsible

Koha Ditore reports that the behaviour of the members of the Negotiations Team during their last meeting is in disproportion with the will of the people.

The paper reports that the political spectrum in Kosovo and the people have shown obvious concern over some deep disagreements among members of the Negotiation Team that were made public.

Muhamet Hamiti, spokesperson of the President, calls for more seriousness from the members of the team.

PDK Secretary General Jakup Krasniqi said he did not want to comment on statements by coordinator Shala.

AAK spokesperson Ernest Luma said that that ‘jeopardizing unity is a responsibility of the members of the team and it is not in compliance with the will of the people of Kosovo.

Ylli Hoxha from ORA has said that for the sake of the political moment, members of the Negotiations Team should demonstrate a higher level of responsibility. Koha reports that other smaller parties are not surprised at all. While some people even suggest creating other groups.

ORA leader, Veton Surroi, confirmed in an interview for RTK last night that the process is at risk and that everything depends on the next session of the Negotiations Team. Koha carries the transcript of the interview. Surroi said that the political conflicts should remain in the Assembly of Kosovo and not pass on within the Negotiations Team, as it should deal with the negotiations. Surroi confirmed that during the meeting were pronounced the worst insults he has heard in the last 16 years of his political life.

Surroi also said that the proposals that Daci presented during the meeting of the team as representing the stance of the Parliament are actually his personal stance.

All dailies cover the meeting of the chief of the US Office in Pristina, Philip Goldberg with parliamentary speaker Nexhat Daci and his call for ‘unity’.

Zëri writes that Goldberg has warned about the high price that disagreements within the Negotiations Team could have.

Epoka e Re writes that Goldberg intervenes at Daci and reports that as usual the internationals are making pressure to bring Kosovo Albanian leaders together. The paper reports in another article that Prime Minister Kosumi has admitted there are delays in the ‘team of unity’ and that he opposes Rugova’s idea for the Negotiations Group. Kosumi says that all the working groups [on status] should be institutional. This stance by Kosumi is in contradiction to Rugova’s stance to give a share to the opposition regarding the status of Kosovo.