Posted on 01/30/2006 1:54:34 AM PST by kronos77
he US yesterday made the case for offering Serbia incentives to reach agreement in negotiations over the final status of Kosovo, while setting out the possibility of independence for the province if the ethnic Albanian majority accepted compromises to accommodate its Serbian minority.
Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state, told a Senate hearing the US was neither championing independence nor autonomy for Kosovo. But diplomats said his testimony was a clear signal the US looked favourably on independence, under certain conditions.
In what diplomats also called a significant policy statement, Mr Burns made clear the US had no objection to independence for Montenegro if it chose to abandon its union with Serbia through a referendum, whose terms have yet to be agreed.
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, last week selected Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president, as his special envoy to lead talks on the status of Kosovo.
The United Nations has administered Kosovo since Nato occupied the province in 1999.
“They [Kosovo Albanians] want independence. They have to prove they are worthy of it,” Mr Burns told the Senate foreign relations committee.
Mr Burns said he had recently told the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team that they could not attain their objective without compromise. “They have to assure the minority population there’s a future for that minority population,” he said. That included guarantees that Serbian churches and historic sites would be respected.
Asked what incentives could be offered to Serbia, Mr Burns said a successful outcome would help the prospects of eventual membership of Nato and the European Union. Serbia would not be able to contemplate joining Nato as long as it was involved in a territorial dispute, he said.
Mr Burns reiterated that as a first stage, to join Nato’s partnership for peace programme, Serbia had to make sure that Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, had surrendered to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Mr Burns said partition of Kosovo was not an option. He also advocated a continued Nato presence, with US troops, even after the settlement of status.
Diplomats said it was evident that, behind the scenes, the US and UK were most in favour of independence as a solution among the six-nation contact group.
Anyone wants to be added/removed from my Balkan Ping list, please FRmail me.
ping
As far as you exaggerate with your argumentation, I also dislike the idea of independent Kosovo. Such precedent might provoke similar actions in other part of the world. Kosovo should get some autonomy among Serbia but nothing more.
I hope you are right about my exggeration.
And I think that wide authonomy is best for Kosov, and all they will muslims get.
But State Departmant offitials are downgrating America in the eyes of the Serbs with statements like theese.
Why? It should be the decision of the majority of the Kosovarians in what form of gouvernment they want to live. There is a name for it: Democracy. If they want to be a part of Serbia, Albania or if they want to start their own country - I do not care as long as they are no threat to their neighbours or their own people and minorities. Religion shouldn't play a role in such consideration, since we do not live in a theocracy.
The problem I see is, that they are simply not able to form a own working government due to the tendency of their leaders to be hateful, criminal and chaotic. The common people have to pay a bitter price.
This sounds good only in theory, I would understand if a significant territory is occupied by some nation and they want to be independent but Kosovo is a shithole and Albanians already have their own state. Only wait for other to follow, Africa, Asia and etc. Does Basques should also be allowed to vote? I have nothing against, such civilized countries like Spain and France should be example for others don’t you think? :)
There is a big difference. The Serbs are not exactly those who respect the rights of minorities (I know - the Albanians are not better). Spain, France, Poland or Germany learned that it can be interesting to contain out of more than just one ethnic source. Did you know that the Katalanians are respected as a own nation by the Spainish gouvernment since a few weeks? Did you know that i.e. the Danish minority has granted seats in the parliament in Schleswig-Holstein/Germany? Did you know that the German minority in Poland also has the right on granted seats in the Sejm!?! This is the way how to deal with minorities.
Serbia is still not affixed enough to stand in for such a responsibility. I do not trust into their leaders. In fact they hate the majority of the Kosovarians with the bottom of their heart. It doesn't make any sense to hand them over defenseless people after what have happened.
Currently the Serbia are not great example how deal with minorities, I admit it. However I didn’t heard about any problems with Hungarians in Vojvodina. But with time they will learn what is necessary. How about history of the EU countries? How many years passed since they become tolerant towards minorities? They are not better or worse than Serbs and other Balkaners the victims of the Yalta agreement. You still don’t have any solution how to stop similar movements in Africa and Asia in the future.
I guess you must care then... because they will always be a threat to minorities. The genocide of non-Albanians will continue until there are no minorities in Kosovo.
I could say they hate all of the minorities, but I suspect there are some that they do no hate. They just want them gone from "Kosova".
The question to me is what the Kosovarians want. I do not care that much about the political auto-erotic of some "local heroes" from Serbia or Albania, who are stammering around about "holy earth", "the defense of christendom/islam" etc. etc. etc. It has to be something the people can live with. They do not need a orgy of smeary nationalism, they need a place where their children have a future. Their own decision will be the best since they will make it in their own interest. The next problem to me is, that I do not want to waste much more German money and troops into this crazy quagmire. The problem has to be solved. Soon.
BTW - I wouldn't be that bad to me if boarders would represent the real boarders. The boundaries of i.e. Africa were made by British, German and French colonialists not regarding the local ethnic realities. Therefore it could be a political "quantum jump" for the Africans, if their boarders could be corrected into their needs. If you take north and south Sudan i.e.. It is not nessecary that the different ethnics (christian and muslim) are melted in one state and one government. I am aware that the change of boarders is usually a bloddy business, but if we have the chance to do it without loosing thousands of men like in Kosovo - why not try it?
Understood. But what is your solution to solve this problem?
So when the Mexicans get a few more people in Arizona, they get to keep it?
Great.
I believe that you will agree that democracy means equal rights and obligations for ALL citizens, regrardless of the race, religion, ethnicity, that all "Kosovarians" have the right to decide what kind of "gouvernment" they want to live.
That means, Ethnic Albanians, Serbs, Roma, Ashkali, Gorani, Turks, Jews, Bosniaks, Croats have to decide, not only Albanians.
Also, that "Kosovarians" must be citizens of Kosovo, not illegal aliens.
As it is now, more than 300,000 Serbs and Roma are expelled from Kosovo, their property looted, torched down or stolen by KLA goons, and over 300,000 illegal settlers from Albania took their place.
Population of Kosovo was less than 2000 000 before the war and it is around 2000 000 today. The difference of 600 000 makes any wish of "kosovarians" pure fabrication - 300,000 have no right to decide because they are citizens of Albania and 300 000 are forbidden to return to their homes.
Double standards. You are not interested what Basques want, because you consider Spain and France to be democratic. So what is the conclusion? If they are democratic then they can ignore the will of the people in other words democracy?
I understand that you don’t like nationalist especially in Balkan version but independence for Kosovo is not good solution. You are worries how Serbs will treat Albanians, with wide autonomy they are save, there is plenty of them here… What about the Serbs and other minorities from Kosovo? Albanians aren’t less nationalist than the Serbs are.
Autonomy is the only solution, if later the Serbs would somehow mistreat Albanians in Kosovo then eventually world should punish them.
Beside theoretically what is the sense of independent Kosovo, if not Serbia they should join Albania. Who needs second Moldova?
I am aware that the change of boarders is usually a bloddy business, but if we have the chance to do it without loosing thousands of men like in Kosovo - why not try it?
I hope that you are also aware that we have thousands of such Kosovos in the world. Do we really want thousands bloody wars? Which country would send troops to all those regions? This is like Pandora box… Better don’t touch.
"Brooklyn brigde for sale - if interested call Atlantic Brigade" :-)
It's been done, failed, and we're not wasting any more time with it.
The Serbs chose to turn their backs upon negotiations and compromise back in the 1990's. Had they not thereafter engaged in three unsuccessful campaigns of ethnic cleansing to either secure or enlarge Greater Serbia, there might have been some room for further negotiations in regards to Kosovar autonomy.
As it stands, however, they didn't, so there isn't, any more than there is a chance of Belgrade regaining authority over the Krajina or Republika Srpska.
Further, the Serbian police and army to this day still have not been held accountable for their actions in Kosovo (or Croatia and Bosnia, for that matter) in any meaningful way by the civilian government supposedly in charge of Serbia, so they're not going back to Kosovo.
It is what it is. No amount of discussion will make it into something it isn't.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.