UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 28 December 2007 - Recent negotiations at the United Nations fail to reach any compromise on the future political status of the Serbian province of Kosovo .

The mostly ethnic Albanian province’s leaders in the provincial capital of Pristina are pushing forward towards complete independence from Serbia . 

On the other hand, the Serbian government remains staunchly opposed to independence for the province.

A recent United Nations report stated that “neither party was willing to cede its position on the fundamental question of sovereignty.”

It is beginning to appear that whatever the future holds for Kosovo, it involves a future outside of Serbian control.

United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, told the press recently that “the reality is that Kosovo and Serbia are never going to be part of the same state again,”

In fact, it is very likely that the Kosovars will declare unilateral independence sometime soon in the next few weeks.

Should this happen, it is unlikely that Serbia will take military action to wrestle back control of Kosovo, since such actions “wouldn’t be in their interest,” according to Secretary Rice.

Most likely, the western powers and international community will recognize Kosovo’s independence since “we believe in the independence of Kosovo,” according to Ambassador Frank Wisner (Secretary of State’s Special Envoy for Kosovo Final Status Talks).

This conflict has its origins in the 1999 Security Council Resolution 1244.

This authorized the creation of a peacekeeping force that took control of the violence-stricken province from the Serbian government and into the hands of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to bring an end to the conflict.

At the time of the creation of UNMIK, the goal of the United Nations was to bring peace to Kosovo and establish an internal democratic government in the province, along with assisting in arranging a final decision on Kosovo’s political status.

Former Secretary-General at the time, Kofi Annan, stated that “the task before the international community is to help the people in Kosovo to rebuild their lives and heal the wounds of conflict.”

In terms of rebuilding the small, previously war-torn province, the UNMIK has been met with some success.

The level of criminal violence in the province has declined considerably since UNMIK took control of Kosovo; in 2000 there were 291 recorded murders in Kosovo compared to only 61 in 2006, in a population estimated to be around 1.9 million.

This current period of relative peace has allowed for the return of almost 50,000 refugees (including more than 16,000 ethnic minorities) who fled the province since the outbreak of violence in the late 1990’s.

Also, the success of the recent democratic elections to the Provincial Assembly last month show us that the democratic process has indeed been established in the province.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Joachim Rucker, recently stated that he is “pleased that the process is moving forward in a peaceful atmosphere which shows the maturity of the Kosovo people and the political parties.”

However, problems such as the dire economic situation remain.

Statistics from the International Monetary Fund show us that the total GDP of the province has remained around a meager 2.3 billion Euros for the past four years.

Also, unemployment is still at very high levels with local authorities placing the figure as high as 42% unemployed.

This is especially disturbing considering the fact that the province is still heavily dependent on foreign aid, accounting for almost 30% of all GDP in the province.

The economic survival of the province while aid gets reduced, as is predicted by the United Nations, will be a difficult problem for any future Kosovo government to solve.

However, before the province can rebuild itself economically, a political solution to its current political status must be decided upon.

Most Western nations and the UN are supporting a proposal by Special Envoy to the Secretary-General, Martti Ahtisaari, to grant Kosovo a form of quasi-independence under international supervision.

However, months of deliberations at the United Nations this year by the Albanian Kosovars and the Serbian government has lead to a deadlock on the future status of the province.

Mr. Ahtisaari recently stated that “under our auspices, the parties engaged in the most sustained and intense high-level direct dialogue since hostilities ended in Kosovo in 1999.” 

Although there were some areas of agreement such as both sides “agreed on the need to promote and protect multi-ethnic societies and address difficult issues holding back reconciliation, particularly the fate of missing persons and the return of the displaced persons,” according to Mr. Ahtisaari. 

Mr. Ahtisaari also added that “perhaps most important, Belgrade and Pristina reaffirmed the centrality of their European perspective to their future relations, with both sides restating their desire to seek a future under the common roof of the European Union.”

However, these areas of common interest are not helping to break the deadlock over the issue of final status for Kosovo.

US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, last week stated that “the parties are now no closer on the question of Kosovo’s final status than when the UN initially adopted Resolution 1244 more than eight years ago.”

It is only preferable that such an outcome occurs with the co-operation of Serbia and their Russian allies.

Labels: United Nations, U.N., 

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