EU, UN discuss Kosovo

Focus on whether political status will come before stability is achieved

By Tarek el-Tablawy - The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS - European foreign ministers and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought common ground Monday on whether the future political status of Kosovo should be determined ahead of the implementation of security standards. The meeting, which included foreign ministers from Romania, Spain, Italy, Germany and France along with US representatives, came ahead of the opening of the UN General Assembly yesterday. Talks also tackled the upcoming elections in the beleaguered province. Several member states have said they expect the Kosovo issue to share the limelight with other key concerns like terrorism, the situation in Iraq and the reform of the United Nations and the Security Council. Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia and Montenegro, the successor state to Yugoslavia. It is administered by the UN mission and NATO-led peacekeepers. Some “traditional nuances arose... particularly about Resolution 1244,” Romania’s Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana told The Associated Press.

He was referring to a Security Council resolution that leaves the final political status of the province to be determined at a later stage. “For some countries, this is a red line,” he said. The province’s ethnic Albanians and Serbs are deeply divided over its future status. Ethnic Albanians, who dominate the province, want to turn it into an independent state. But Serbs insist it should remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.

For talks on the province’s final status to take place, UN officials have demanded progress in areas such as minority rights and the economy. They have set mid-2005 as a review date.

Delegates also discussed the October 23 elections and “ways in which we could encourage the Serbian and other minorities to participate,” said Geoana.

The Serbs, who have threatened to boycott the polls, have so far taken part only reluctantly in elections held in Kosovo, arguing that their cooperation wouldn’t keep the situation from deteriorating.

Anti-Serb violence in March left 19 people dead and several thousand Serbs homeless. Up to 200,000 Serbs fled in the aftermath of the 1998-99 Kosovo war in which former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was toppled after a NATO bombing campaign.

To help win their support for the elections, UN officials in the region have urged Serbia’s leadership to discuss a plan aimed at giving local Serbs more power and security.

They have said the plan could “complement” a UN- and Kosovo government-developed document, which sets a framework for the transfer of power to local authorities. While not providing details, Romania’s Geoana said the ministers also discussed the “transfer of competencies to the national and local governments.”