Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Finally the "I" word has been mentioned officially for Kosovo. Today Ahtisaari unveiled his plan for Kosovo and after avoiding now, as expected, mentions that Kosovo should be given independence. The hesitancy over the past seven years to name future status of Kosovo this explicitly has been understandable, but also gave unrealistic hope to the Serbian elite that anything else was an option. At this point, unfortunately, it still looks like Serbian authorities will be busier preventing the decision in the Sec. Council and any implementation, rather than making the best of the offer and the extensive minority rights protections offered in the package.

4 comments:

iGoR said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
iGoR said...

I agree on the point that the present political élite should have been more active in the negotiations for the sake of the people that live in Kosovo.
Parties that are forming the government are just irresponsible and I am afraid that it is going to be costly for the Serbian citizens.

Bg anon said...

Florian you dont believe that the minority rights package will prove any more effective than the current situation for minorities do you?

From the standpoint of the rights of Serbs (or even other minorities in Kosovo) the best position is to support Kosovo remaining in Serbia.

If you (or anybody) is to argue that Serbia should accept Kosovo independence I dont find the minority issue effective. More effective is the indisputable point that 90 percent of Kosovo's population will not be persuaded to remain part of Serbia.

Florian Bieber said...

Hi Bganon,
you are of course right that the minority package has not been very successful. However, if Kosovo were to remain with Serbia, everybody agrees that Serbia would have no de facto power in Kosovo, so I don't see what Serbia could do in such a case to protect the Serbian minority there. Thus, I just don't see how the Serbian official position has anything to offer to Serbs in Kosovo....