Austria attempts Kosovo resolution

Released : Saturday, April 14, 2007 2:26 AM

AUSTRIA: Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is working with Serbia on a
deal to grant the breakaway province of Kosovo independence in a way that is
acceptable to Belgrade.

Mr Gusenbauer told reporters the West had to acknowledge that Serb leaders
at the moment could not endorse the independence plan proposed by UN envoy
Martti Ahtisaari, and a formula was needed which did not humiliate Belgrade.

"We are working with [Serbian president] Boris Tadic and his people to find
a way to implement the essence of the Ahtisaari plan," Mr Gusenbauer said
late on Thursday.

A Social Democrat who took office in January as head of a wide coalition
government, Mr Gusenbauer said Austria had established itself as an honest
broker in the region.

"It can't be the goal to humiliate Serbia, but there needs to be a deal
where both [Serbia and Kosovo] emerge from the situation holding their heads
high," he said.

The UN Security Council is discussing Mr Ahtisaari's plan, in which one of
the major problems is how to deal with the northern part of Kosovo,
inhabited predominantly by Serbs.

Mr Gusenbauer said one way out might be to model the area on the
semi-autonomous province of Alto Adige in northern Italy, known in Austria
as South Tyrol.

The region is populated predominantly by German-speaking people with Austria
as their guarantor state.

Italy and Austria agreed in 1972 that the province could have special
legislative rights and fill major administrative posts without interference
from Rome, an element missing from Mr Ahtisaari's plan for the Serb areas of
Kosovo.

"Perhaps the northern part of Kosovo could develop in a similar fashion as
South Tyrol has developed in the past in Italy," Gusenbauer said.

"There are a number of models."

Serbia has so far rejected any deal that would give Kosovo independence,
even if Serbia had a guarantor role for the Serb areas or Serbs were given
more rights in Kosovo.

Mr Gusenbauer also said that in his view Turkey was not yet ready to join
the European Union because of its human rights record. Hopes for a quick
accession should not be encouraged, he said.

"As long as Turkish citizens are asking for asylum in Austria, and as long
as the Austrian authorities deem the reasons on which such requests are
based are so strong that asylum will actually be granted, it will be
impossible for Turkey to join," Mr Gusenbauer said.