Free Republic

BELGRADE, June 13 (Reuters) - Serbia on Friday rejected a proposed European Union police mission for Kosovo and accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of overreaching his powers in its former province. Days before Kosovo's constitution comes into effect, Ban put forward a proposal to "reconfigure" the activities of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK, and allow the EU to pursue a police mission there. "Ban Ki-moon overstepped his powers. The Security Council is the only relevant authority to decide whether the UNMIK mission should be reconfigured," Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, told reporters. The United Nations has administered...

Sir -- I am a serving army officer and I have just returned off leave. I read your article on Kosovo with great interest. It was excellent, I really am fed up reading the UN propaganda that is blindly regurgitated by most visiting journalists. While undoubtedly United Nations' Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has improved the country and the lot of the Kosovar Albanians in particular, as an international organisation it could have done so much better. So well done for telling it as it is! ... The population is as divided as ever, freedom of movement for the K/Serbs is...

"Unfortunately neither political representatives of the Kosovo Albanians nor the international community realized what a chance this was for us to start changing relations between Serbs and (ethnic) Albanians," Tadic said. "If the presence of a Serbian president at a funeral in Pristina is unacceptable, the begging question is whether we are acceptable to one another and whether we shall ever be so in the future," he said.

RADE (AP)--Serbian President Boris Tadic said in an interview published Friday that he will never accept independence for Kosovo. "As far as I am concerned, I will never sign any decision granting independence to Kosovo," Tadic told Glas daily. Kosovo is formally part of Serbia, although the province has been an international protectorate since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign halted Belgrade's crackdown against ethnic Albanian rebels. Talks to determine Kosovo's future status are expected to start later this year under mediation by the United Nations. Kosovo's ethnic Albanians are seeking independence, but Belgrade officials want to keep the region...

One problem though: Thaci refuses to discuss decentralisation issue during the status negotiations since the reformation of local power is an issue, which concerns Kosovo institutions. Although other members of the Albanian status negotiating team unanimously stated that decentralisation couldn't be part of the talks, one may wonder if Thaci’s unpredictable temper may change the course of history. Since 1995, there is a new Albanian movement called “Vetevendosje” (self determination) in Kosovo guided by a 30-year old former student leader and political prisoner Albin Kurti, who reminds of Thaci of old times: relentless, determined (though non violent). Famous American Balkan...