German paper: UNSC members divided over status of Kosovo
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - May 4, 2007, Friday

Text of report by German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau website on 3 May

[Report by Norbert Mappes-Niediek: "Kosovo Plan Nearing Defeat - UN Delegation Returns to New York Sceptically" - first paragraph is Frankfurter Rundschau introduction.]

The plan devised by UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari is about to come to nothing. This seems to be the impression of UN diplomats after their trip to Kosovo. The plan provides for a "conditional independence" of Kosovo.

Graz - A mission of 20 diplomats from the 15 member states of the United Nations Security Council, visiting Brussels, Belgrade, and Kosovo on the weekend [ 28-29 April], will present its report in New York on Tuesday. South Africa's UN Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said after the trip that what they had seen and heard was "grossly" different from the reports of UN administrators.

When visiting the Serbian enclaves of Orahovac, Velika Hoca, and Gracanica in Kosovo, the diplomats were confronted with strong complaints of the residents. Some 10,000 to 15,000 refugee Serbs held demonstrations at two checkpoints into Kosovo. According to unofficial counts, Martti Ahtisaari's plan would get six out of 15 votes maximum in a ballot in the UN Security Council. Nine votes are necessary to approve it.

The Ahtisaari plan will only get the votes of the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy. The position of Peru, Panama, and Qatar is seen as unclear. South Africa, Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, and China tend to reject the plan, while Slovakia and Russia are definitely against. Moscow also threatened to veto the independence of Kosovo last week.

In Brussels, though, US Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried explained the US position more clearly than anyone else before him. "I hope the Russians understand that Kosovo will become independent in any case," he said. "Either this will happen in a controlled, monitored way, where the wellbeing of the Serbian people is guaranteed, or it will happen in an uncontrolled way, and then the Kosovo Serbs will suffer more than anyone else, which would be dreadful."

Germany in Favour of "Slimmed-Down Resolution"

In an effort to maintain the foreign policy positions of the European Union on the issue of Kosovo, the German EU Council Presidency has put forward the idea of passing a "slimmed-down resolution." This means for the UN Security Council to leave the future status of Kosovo open, while paving the way for the ongoing deployment of the Kosovo Force, a police mission, and the "rule of law mission" provided for in the Ahtisaari plan.

Should the UN Security Council fail to define the status of Kosovo in its resolution, the Kosovo Albanians would be free to declare independence. In that case, the United States and, after that, most EU states will probably recognize Kosovo.

Source: Frankfurter Rundschau website, Frankfurt/Main, in German 3 May 07

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