SERBIA DIPLOMATS SAY FRIED VISIT PART OF US RESOLVE FOR PROMPT KOSOVO SOLUTION
BBC Monitoring International Reports - March 7, 2007, Wednesday

Text of report by Biljana Mitrinovic: "Washington rushes things, Moscow holds them back" by Serbian newspaper Politika on 6 March

Daniel Fried's visit to Belgrade was part of the US resolve not to allow any standstill in the resolution of the Kosovo issue, Politika has categorically been told by diplomatic sources, who said that Washington was conducting something like a diplomatic and propaganda offensive in the Balkans, with a view to lending strong support to UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan.

The US assistant secretary of state for Europe met with Boris Tadic, Vojislav Kostunica, and Vuk Draskovic in Belgrade yesterday [ 5 March].

Tadic and Fried agreed that the talks on Kosovo's status, held under the UN aegis, needed to be resumed. They also agreed that it "is extremely important that the security situation in Kosovo remains stable," the Presidential Office announced. The Office also said that Tadic had assessed that Serbia was "constructively participating" in the talks and stated that any form of independence for the province was unacceptable for Serbia.

Kostunica told Fried that Ahtisaari had overstepped his mandate. "Instead of making possible talks that would be conducive to the reaching of a compromise solution regarding the structuring of the province, Ahtisaari has raised the issue of Serbia's status as a state and is proposing the redrawing of its internationally recognized borders[," the statement released by the prime minister's Office said]. The statement also said that Fried had told Kostunica that the United States expected Serbia "to constructively participate also in the next round of the talks scheduled to be held in Vienna." Politika has reported that Ahtisaari has invited the president and the prime minister of Serbia to a "high-level meeting" in Vienna on 10 March.

The statement released by the Foreign Ministry said that Fried had said in the meeting with Minister Draskovic that, under the proposal of special UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, the international community's "priority task" would be "to protect the Serbian population, its cultural and religious monuments."

Two roads to solution

Fried arrived in Belgrade three days after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov, who reiterated that Russia would not support Ahtisaari's plan if the consent of both negotiating sides was not secured and assessed that "it is not time for that paper to come before the Security Council."

Both visits took place after it was shown that the last week's talks in Vienna had not brought closer together Belgrade's and Pristina's positions on any item of special UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal.

Politika has learned that in the past few weeks the Kosmet [Kosovo and Metohija] issue has been very much in the focus of attention of the State Department sector headed by Fried. That all articles and reports relating to Kosovo and Metohija that have been carried by relevant Belgrade media have been promptly translated, that the statements made by members of our highest state leadership who participate in the resolution of the Kosmet issue have very carefully been followed, and that ranking US officials in charge of foreign policy have been kept posted about it all. All analyses show that, in the absence of headway in the Vienna talks, there are two roads that could now be taken in the resolution of the Kosovo issue.

After Moscow showed that it intended significantly to influence the resolution of the Kosovo problem, maybe even by vetoing a proposal that would not be unacceptable to Belgrade (US Undersecretary Nicholas Burns had initially voiced disbelief that such a thing was possible) there have followed readjustments in relations between the key players who can influence the resolution of the Kosmet issue. The veto was not mentioned in Moscow in the past few days and, according to Politika's sources, it was not mentioned either by Vladimir Titov during his visit to Belgrade last week. However, it is clear that the United States will not be able alone to take a decision on Kosmet's future. But, of course, that does not rule out the possibility of Moscow and Washington reaching an "agreement" on Kosmet, maybe in June in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A diplomat of an EU member-state in Belgrade has told Politika that that will be an opportunity for "each of the world powers to try to achieve its foreign-policy priorities through a mutual relaxation of their positions." A Politika source close to the Russian diplomatic service claims that it could easily happen that Ahtisaari's proposal is not discussed at the Security Council sessions (like in the case of the draft resolution on the status of northern Cyprus) and that the only resolution that could be passed by that world forum could only be a "technical resolution" on the transfer of powers from the United Nations to the European Union. That is the first variant that foreign diplomats foresee. The other possible scenario is a unilateral recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by the United States.

Unilateral recognition

On learning that Belgrade would not give its approval for the separation of its southern province the United States started sending informal messages that it would nevertheless not give up its plan for Kosovo to get independence as soon as possible. The United States is reportedly ready unilaterally to recognize independence for Kosovo should it fail to reach an agreement with Moscow. That is justified with the impatience and frustration of the Kosovo Albanians with the putting off of a decision about Kosmet, which had initially been announced for November 2006. That is offered as a justification although, judging by everything, the dissatisfaction of Albin Kurti's Self-Determination movement with Ahtisaari's plan is only a screen for continual Albanian pressure on the countries that have their security forces [in the province]. In fact it serves as a reminder that the lives of the international troops depend on the goodwill and hospitality of the Kosovo Albanians.

One can look on yesterday's march-past of Kosovo Protection Corps members, held at the Pristina stadium under the name "OVK [Kosovo Liberation Army - UCK in Albanian] Epic," in the same context. The march-past was held under the auspices of Prime Minister Agim Ceku's transitional government to mark the 9th anniversary of the death of Adem Jashari and his family. Ceku used the military parade to let it be known that he will personally work for the Kosovo Protection Corps to be turned into Kosovo's future army.

After explosive was planted under a UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo" vehicle recently, for which the responsibility was claimed by the "Kosovo Liberation Army," which committed many rimes against Serbs during the war, the world media assessed that terrorism was returning to Kosovo.

Source: Politika, Belgrade, in Serbian 6 Mar 07 pp 1, 5

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Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited

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