FEBRUARY2007

Slavic and Albanian peoples have co-existed in Kosovo since the eighth century. The region was the centre of the Serbian empire until the mid-14th century, and Serbians regard Kosovo as the birthplace of their state.

Over the centuries, as the ethnic balance shifted in favour of Albanians, Kosovo came to represent a Serbian golden age, embodied in epic poetry.

Serbia's defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 ushered in centuries of rule under the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Serbia regained control of Kosovo in 1913, and the province was incorporated into the Yugoslav federation.

Serbs and ethnic Albanians vied for control in the region throughout the 20th century. In the 1960s the suppression of Albanian national identity in Kosovo gave way to a more tolerant line from Belgrade. Ethnic Albanians gained a foothold in the Kosovan, and Yugoslav, administrations.

Serbs latterly only made up about 10% of the populationof Albanians and Roma, the historic and emotional importance of the province for them is enormous.

Serbs thus consider Kosovo the cradle of their culture, religion and national identity.

The 1974 Yugoslav constitution laid down Kosovo's status as an autonomous province of Serbia. Pressure for independence mounted in the 1980s after the death of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.

1987:

Serbs were complaining about persecution by the majority Albanians. Milosevic promised Serbian demonstrators in Kosovo that "no one will dare to beat you again".

Two years later, when he became Yugoslav president, he set about stripping Kosovo of its autonomy.

1990s:

A passive resistance movement in the 1990s failed to secure independence or restore autonomy, although ethnic Albanian leaders declared unilateral independence in 1991.

In the mid-1990s the ethnic Albanian rebel movement, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), stepped up its attacks on Serb targets.

By the summer of 1998, Albanians were mounting mass protests against Serbian rule and police and army reinforcements were sent in to crush the KLA.

A deal to end the crisis was brokered by the international community in early 1999. The autonomy plan was reluctantly accepted by the ethnic Albanians but rejected by Milosevic.

The continued persecution of Kosovo Albanians(Query 85% being persecuted by 10% ??)led to the start of Nato air strikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in March 1999.

This addenda to the break up of Yugoslavia has to be considered - it was created by Deitrich Genscher Foreign Minister in Germany who created Slovenia as a German client state - This led to the President Milosevic calling out the Yugoslav army to re-take Slovenia, which failed and the returning army then encountered the Croatians who had meantime declared their independence.
The Serbs had been on the side of the Allies during World War 2 and little expected a NATO force to enter the fray and obliterate the Yugoslav Nation with the use of the KLA, a Muslim force that heralded the emergence of Muslims on the European scene, trained by the USA to fight Russia in Afghanistan.

After 11 weeks of Nato bombing, Milosevic was forced to withdraw his troops and police, some 750,000 Albanian refugees came home and about 100,000 Serbs - roughly half the province's Serb population - fled. The UN was put in charge, pending agreement on whether Kosovo should become independent or revert to Yugoslavian rule.

March2004

A flare-up in Mitrovica in March showed how volatile the situation in Kosovo remains.

It was the worst clash between the two communities since Serb forces were driven out of Kosovo in 1999. A total of 19 people died.

Oct.2004 : International peacekeeping troops led by Nato are deployed in Kosovo, as the Kosovo Force (K-For). The 18,500-strong force was beefed up in early October with an extra 2,000 troops, from Germany, Italy and France, to prevent further ethnic clashes. The Mitrovica violence showed their limitations, highlighting the difficulty of policing divided communities. For Europe it was an ugly reminder of the bloodshed that convulsed the Balkans in the 1990s.

The immediate result is a substantial reduction in the Serbs' representation in the Kosovo Assembly. They will have hardly any seats beyond the 10 that are reserved for them - down from 22 in the outgoing Assembly. In the long term, the boycott may turn out to have been a dress rehearsal for the Serbs' approach to the planned talks about Kosovo's future status...... But representatives of Kosovo's Serbs may simply refuse to have anything to do with the negotiations, which they believe are likely to lead to Kosovo's independence.

Kosovans were electing a 120-member assembly for a four-year term.

One hundred seats are distributed among all parties contesting the election, in proportion to their share of the popular vote.Apart from the 10 seats reserved for parties representing the Serbs, another 10 are set aside for smaller ethnic groups. The Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities are guaranteed four seats, Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) three, the Turkish community two and the Gorani (Muslim Serbs) community one.

Foreign policy, customs and monetary policy remain the responsibility of the UN secretary-general's special representative in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen.MPs also elect the president, whose powers are limited to proposing the prime minister and representing Kosovo abroad.

In the week before polling, Serbs staged several protest rallies. Only some smaller Serb parties, such as the Civic Initiative of Serbia, participated in the election.The two largest parties, the Return Coalition and the Serbia Movement-Serbian Resistance Movement, decided to stay away. The electoral commission said turnout was 51% of Kosovo's 1.4 million voters.

The Theory of "delay" for several years then perpetrated by NATO and the European Union is obviously that ethnic groups will consolidate politically and favour the German Foreign Policy of separating such groups nationally. This carries an unfortunate echo of the Fascist regime in 1930s that wished to place the German and other Jews in Palestine - an English project on hand since 1918. In the meantime NATO and Europe have been able to separate all Yugoslavia except this multi ethnic community in Kosovo.

While NATO continued their attack Milosevic became the first serving head of state to be indicted for crimes against humanity, by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. According to the indictment, Milosevic and a number of his colleagues bore direct responsibility for crimes that are alleged to have included the deportation of almost 750,000 Kosovo Albanians and the murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians. Much of this data was contradicted by Milosevic in an unresolved trial during which he died.

Milosevic's trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity got under way in earnest in early 2002 at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. By the time of his death in March 2006, the prosecution had completed its case but the defence was continuing. The court was unable to establish legally what had actually happened in Kosovo.

The flare-up in Mitrovica in March showed how volatile the situation in Kosovo remains. It was the worst clash between the two communities since Serb forces were driven out of Kosovo in 1999. A total of 19 people died.The ferocity of the violence took the UN and Nato by surprise and raised the spectre of a return to instability in the Balkans. Kosovo Serb leaders and the Serb authorities in Belgrade accused the Kosovo Albanians of an orchestrated campaign to drive the remaining Serbs out of the province.

Feb 1st. 2007:Kosovo will be allowed to separate from Serbia and use its own national symbols under proposals to end its limbo status drawn up by the UN's special envoy. The Serbian government has sought guarantees on self-government for Serbs within Kosovo, and on the return of Serbs who fled the province, before it endorses the vote.

Martti Ahtisaari's plan does not mention the word "independence", but that is virtually what is on offer. The status remains that Foreign policy, customs and monetary policy remain the responsibility of the UN secretary-general's special representative in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen.MPs also elect the president, whose powers are limited to proposing the prime minister and representing Kosovo abroad.

Mr Ahtisaari is in Belgrade presenting his proposals to Serbian officials. Germany, which chairs the current European Union (EU) presidency, through its liaison office in Prishtina supported today the proposal and recommendations of the UN Kosova status envoy, Martti Ahtisaari. The Secretary of Great Britain for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Margaret Beckett said today that Britain fully supports President Ahtisaari’s efforts, adding that Britain is confident that his proposals can form the basis for a fair and sustainable settlement for Kosova which will enhance regional stability and the region’s Euro-Atlantic prospects. (What can they be?JB ed.)

Representatives of the Kosovar Serbs will meet with Ahtisaari

01.02.2007 ET Mitrovica (KosovaLive)

‘Serb List for Kosovo and Metohija’ (SLKM) and Independent Liberal Party (NLS) will meet tomorrow with UN Kosova status envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

Mr Ahtisaari said protecting the rights of Kosovo's 100,000 Serbs and other minorities was at the heart of the scheme.

It outlines "a high degree of control" for Serbs over their own affairs, and would grant them six new Serb-administered municipalities and a greater voice in the higher education and health systems.

Serbs also would be given "extensive municipal autonomy in financial matters, including the ability to accept transparent funding from Serbia".

"An important element of the settlement is the mandate provided for a future international civilian and military presence in Kosovo, to supervise implementation of the settlement and assist the competent Kosovo authorities in ensuring peace and stability throughout Kosovo," the draft document said.

The proposals would also protect Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox churches, which have been targeted by ethnic Albanians.

"More than 40 key religious and cultural sites will be surrounded by protective zones to prevent any disruptive commercial and industrial development or construction, and to preserve the cultural dignity of such sites," the draft said. It added that physical security would be in place at some sites.

Around 200,000 Serbs fled Kosovo after the war in the wake of revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians.

"All refugees and internally displaced persons from Kosovo will have the right to return and reclaim their property and personal possessions," the document said.

"The settlement also calls upon Kosovo and Serbia to cooperate fully with the International Committee of the Red Cross to resolve the fate of missing persons."

Feb.3rd.

EU welcomes, Serbia rejects UN Kosovo draft

02.02.2007 - 17:40 CET | By Mark Beunderman
The EU has strongly urged Serbs and Kosovan Albanians to engage in talks on the basis of a UN proposal on the future of Kosovo unveiled on Friday (2 February) – but Serbia immediately rejected the UN text as opening the door to Kosovo's independence.

UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Friday presented his long-awaited "Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement" to Serb president Boris Tadic in Belgrade, before flying on the same day to Pristina to brief Kosovan president Fatmir Sejdiu. Mr Ahtisaari's report avoids the term "independence" for Kosovo - currently a province of Serbia administered by the UN - but the text effectively puts the territory on a path towards a split from Belgrade, according to western diplomats quoted by the BBC.

The draft "opens the possibility of independence" for Kosovo as Serbia's historic heartland, AP quotes Serbia's Mr Tadic. "I told Mr Ahtisaari that Serbia and I, as its president, will never accept Kosovo's independence," Mr Tadic said in a strongly negative statement after their meeting, with outgoing Serb prime minister Vojislav Kostunica even refusing to meet the UN diplomat.

The UN envoy said that in the coming weeks, he intends to invite the parties to further consultations – which will directly tackle the sovereignty question. "This consultation phase is important, I want to give both parties a chance once again to make points. I will then finalise my settlement proposal for submission to the [UN] Security Council. At that stage I will also elaborate on the status issue," Mr Ahtisaari noted according to Reuters. "On the status issue itself I think the positions of the parties are extremely fixed," the UN diplomat indicated, reflecting his previous failed attempts to get Belgrade and Pristina to agree to a compromise among themselves before any UN-imposed settlement.

EU urges compromise
Meanwhile, the EU said it welcomed Friday's UN roadmap, with Europe's foreign policy chief Javier Solana stating "I strongly encourage both Belgrade and Pristina to engage actively with Martti Ahtisaari on the basis of his proposal." "I expect both parties to demonstrate responsibility, flexibility and a recognition of the need for realistic compromise-based solutions." But with a last-ditch compromise between Belgrade and Pristina being seen as unlikely, the EU as well as the US are gearing up for a confrontation at the UN security council with Russia which has said it will oppose any decision unacceptable for Belgrade.

Moscow has indicated that if Kosovo becomes independent, it could itself push for a similar solution to the pro-Russian separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Transdniestria in Moldova.

UN security council members are seen as unlikely to agree on a new resolution for Kosovo status before the summer, with diplomats speculating on what Moscow wants in return for accepting independence. The UN has no legal power in itself to create a new state by means of a resolution - but a resolution would open the door for other countries or international bodies, such as the EU, to formally recognise Kosovo as a new country.

EU police mission
The EU, meanwhile, is set to back any formula coming out of Mr Ahtisaari's hat - despite member states' divisions over the issue which have seen Spain, Italy, Slovakia and Romania opposing fully-fledged independence for Kosovo.

Under Mr Ahtisaari's plan, the EU is granted a major role in providing security and stability in the territory, seen by Brussels as part of the pack of Balkan states with a perspective of future EU membership. An International Civilian Representative (ICR) supervising the Kosovo status settlement will also function as the EU's special representative, the document says.

A 1,300-man strong European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) mission - the biggest-ever EU civil security operation - will "monitor, mentor and advise on all areas related to the rule of law," assisting Kosovo in the development of police, judicial, customs and penal institutions. This mission will also have "the authority to assume other responsibilities to ensure the maintenance and promotion of the rule of law, public order and security," according to the Ahtisaari plan.

NATO's current military presence on the ground will meanwhile continue for an unspecified period.

(This file will be supplemented during the month if need be JB,ed.)