ISN SECURITY WATCH (25/07/05) - If Kosovo is to begin talks on its
future status later this year then “more progress” needs to be made in the
province, a top UN envoy warned on Monday, as international pressure
mounts for Kosovar politicians to speed up reforms.
In an exclusive interview with ISN Security Watch, Kai Eide, now
working on a report on the situation in Kosovo for the UN, added his voice
to those who have expressed concern recently, saying he was disappointed
by what he had seen in Kosovo in the last few weeks.
Some analysts and diplomats fear that unless Ambassador Eide’s report
is positive and leads to talks that appear to be heading towards
independence for Kosovo then a renewed wave of violence could rock the
province.
Eide will present his report to the Security Council in September, but
the Council is not bound to follow his recommendations.
“Quite honestly, I would have liked to have seen much more progress and
political maturity in Kosovo among its leaders,” Eide said.
Eide is Norway’s ambassador to NATO and a diplomat with considerable
experience in the former Yugoslavia. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan chose
him to conduct a review of the situation in Kosovo following a decision by
the Security Council on 27 May to try and move to end the status quo over
the territory.
Since the end of the Kosovo war in June 1999, the province has been
administered by the UN but legally remains part of Serbia and
Montenegro.
If Eide presents a positive report to the Security Council, it is
expected that Annan will then select a “status envoy” to begin a shuttle
diplomacy mission between Belgrade and Pristina aimed at securing a final,
or at least “future”, settlement of the territory’s status.
Eide was in London last week to brief members of the Contact Group -
which brings together Russia and major Western powers concerned with the
situation in the Balkans - on the progress of his work.
More than 90 per cent of Kosovo’s population of some 2 million is
ethnic Albanian and is calling for nothing less than independence for the
province. The Serbian authorities reject that solution and say that in any
final settlement Kosovo can have “more than autonomy but less than
independence”.
Eide said he was particularly concerned about the stalled return of
mostly Serb refugees who fled Kosovo after the war. The Serbian
authorities say there are 230,000 of them, but this figure has been
disputed.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
only 6,027 Serbs have returned home since the end of the war. The agency
said in a recent report that although there had not been an ethnically
motivated murder in Kosovo in more than a year, Serbs and other minorities
(mostly Roma) continue to suffer attacks, harassment, and intimidation.
Cemeteries continue to be vandalized and “hate graffiti” is painted on
municipal buildings.
Lack of commitment
“So far we don’t see a commitment,” said Eide. “The basic issue is the
creation of a political environment conducive to substantive returns. I
don't think it is there. There are Kosovo Albanian politicians who have
that kind of commitment, but it can also be superficial and that goes
right down the political structures of the parties to the ground,” he
said.
“There is progress, no doubt, there is a legal framework and in that
they have come quite some way...but overall they could have made a lot
more. Especially in creating the political climate they need, they could
and should have done more,” Eide said.
The ambassador's views echo those expressed recently by EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana and Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of the
United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
Eide’s words were not only directed towards Kosovo Albanian
leaders.
“What I would like to see,” he said, “is a strong commitment from the
international players to the Kosovo issue.”
However, “with such a complex international agenda it’s hard to have a
sustained commitment”, he added.
Eide also said he had told Kosovo Albanian leaders that they had to
take Kosovo Serb concerns into account, especially in the territory’s
assembly. He said he had told Serbian leaders that he wanted to see a
return of the Kosovo Serbs into Kosovo’s institutions, which they are
currently boycotting.
Fear of renewed violence
During a recent ten-day visit to Kosovo, Eide participated in some 80
events and meetings. He then spent four days in Belgrade, before embarking
on his current international tour to concerned organizations and
governments in Brussels, Berlin, Rome, London, Paris, Washington, and New
York.
He refused to disclose what he expected his recommendations to be. He
said that Annan was his employer and that he would therefore be the first
to know.
It is feared by many observers and diplomats that if Eide reports that
Kosovo is not ready to begin talks on its future status then violence far
worse than that which broke out in March 2004 could easily sweep the
province again. Then, 4,000 Serbs and Roma were ethnically cleansed and 19
people died.
“Everyone in the international community wants to come to a positive
conclusion, but it has to see progress and moves forward on the ground,
but if they are not committed what can you do?” Eide asked.
Last week, Adem Demaci, a veteran Kosovar politician and former
spokesman of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK) was quoted by the
Serbian daily Blic as saying that unless Kosovo appeared to be on course
for independence then a wave of violence against Kosovo’s Serbs would
erupt.
Later, Demaci claimed that his words had been taken out of context, but
added: “If the demands of the Albanians, who are up in arms, who made
sacrifices, who gave everything they had for the state of Kosovo - for an
independent Kosovo - are not taken into account then a situation will
emerge where people will lose patience. It is already running out. And
then anything can happen.”
Asked what he would recommend if he did not see enough progress
Ambassador Eide replied: “That is the one question I can’t answer. I can’t
speculate but I do believe that, at this stage, more progress is
needed.”
(By Tim Judah in London)
