Kosovo seeks independence in top-level talks | World News | Reuters.co.uk
Kosovo seeks independence in top-level talks
Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:43 AM BST
By Shaban Buza
VIENNA (Reuters) - Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders held U.N.-led talks on the fate of Kosovo on Monday, meeting face-to-face for the first time since the West intervened to halt ethnic cleansing by Serb forces.
The one-day meeting in Vienna formally puts the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence on the agenda of a U.N.-led mediation process that began in February, seven years since NATO bombs drove out Serb forces and the United Nations took control.
Entering separately, the presidents and prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo sat either side of a square table and posed stiffly for photographers in the Gothic Room of the 16th century Vienna palace. There were no handshakes.
Concrete results are unlikely, given what diplomats say is an unbridgeable chasm between the two sides. Some 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are Albanians who reject any return to Serb rule, while Serbia sees Kosovo as forever its "Jerusalem".
"Kosovo functions de facto as a democratic state, and needs only de jure recognition," Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, a former rebel commander, told Reuters before the meeting. "We are not here to negotiate with Serbia or demand recognition from Serbia, but from the international community."
U.N. chief mediator Martti Ahtisaari has also played down hopes of a breakthrough. He is working to a year-end deadline set by the West to propose a settlement, but six months of lower-level direct talks on the rights of the 100,000 Serbs still in Kosovo have produced few signs of compromise.
Ahtisaari's spokeswoman said the meeting would give both sides the chance to "formally present and clarify their positions". A second round at this level is uncertain.
Diplomats say the major powers see little alternative to independence, supervised for years by the European Union.
The United States is pushing hard for a deal in 2006, concerned that delay could spark fresh violence in a territory patrolled by 17,000 NATO soldiers. Russia, a veto holder in the U.N. Security Council and traditional ally of Serbia, has warned against any "artificial timetable".
NATO bombed the Serbs for 78 days in 1999 to halt civilian killings and ethnic cleansing by forces under late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas. Some 10,000 Albanians died, 800,000 were expelled.
But Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of Serbdom, home to scores of centuries-old Orthodox churches. Belgrade is offering autonomy. "The sooner the dangerous idea of creating a new state on Serbian territory is forgotten the better for all," Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Saturday.
Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:43 AM BST
By Shaban Buza
VIENNA (Reuters) - Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders held U.N.-led talks on the fate of Kosovo on Monday, meeting face-to-face for the first time since the West intervened to halt ethnic cleansing by Serb forces.
The one-day meeting in Vienna formally puts the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence on the agenda of a U.N.-led mediation process that began in February, seven years since NATO bombs drove out Serb forces and the United Nations took control.
Entering separately, the presidents and prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo sat either side of a square table and posed stiffly for photographers in the Gothic Room of the 16th century Vienna palace. There were no handshakes.
Concrete results are unlikely, given what diplomats say is an unbridgeable chasm between the two sides. Some 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are Albanians who reject any return to Serb rule, while Serbia sees Kosovo as forever its "Jerusalem".
"Kosovo functions de facto as a democratic state, and needs only de jure recognition," Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, a former rebel commander, told Reuters before the meeting. "We are not here to negotiate with Serbia or demand recognition from Serbia, but from the international community."
U.N. chief mediator Martti Ahtisaari has also played down hopes of a breakthrough. He is working to a year-end deadline set by the West to propose a settlement, but six months of lower-level direct talks on the rights of the 100,000 Serbs still in Kosovo have produced few signs of compromise.
Ahtisaari's spokeswoman said the meeting would give both sides the chance to "formally present and clarify their positions". A second round at this level is uncertain.
Diplomats say the major powers see little alternative to independence, supervised for years by the European Union.
The United States is pushing hard for a deal in 2006, concerned that delay could spark fresh violence in a territory patrolled by 17,000 NATO soldiers. Russia, a veto holder in the U.N. Security Council and traditional ally of Serbia, has warned against any "artificial timetable".
NATO bombed the Serbs for 78 days in 1999 to halt civilian killings and ethnic cleansing by forces under late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas. Some 10,000 Albanians died, 800,000 were expelled.
But Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of Serbdom, home to scores of centuries-old Orthodox churches. Belgrade is offering autonomy. "The sooner the dangerous idea of creating a new state on Serbian territory is forgotten the better for all," Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Saturday.
posted by KUBA at
7/24/2006
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