UN envoy calls for more progress in Kosovo

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND SECURITY NETWORK (SWITZERLAND)

ISN SECURITY WATCH (25/07/05) - If Kosovo is to begin talks on its future status later this year then "more progress" needs to be made in the province, a top UN envoy warned on Monday, as international pressure mounts for Kosovar politicians to move things forward.

In an exclusive interview with ISN Security Watch, Kai Eide, now working on a report on the situation in Kosovo for the UN, added his voice to those who have expressed concern recently, saying he was disappointed by what he had seen in Kosovo in the last few weeks.

Some analysts and diplomats fear that unless Ambassador's Eide's report is positive and leads to talks that appear to be heading towards independence for Kosovo then a renewed wave of violence could rock the province.

Eide will present his report to the Security Council in September, but it is not bound to follow his recommendations.

"Quite honestly, I would have liked to have seen much more progress and political maturity in Kosovo among its leaders," he said.

Eide is Norway's ambassador to NATO and a diplomat with considerable experience in the former Yugoslavia. He was chosen by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to conduct a review of the situation in Kosovo following a decision by the Security Council on 27 May to try and move to end the status quo over the territory.

Since the end of the Kosovo war in June 1999, the province has been administered by the UN but legally remains part of Serbia and Montenegro.

If Eide presents a positive report to the Security Council, it is expected that Annan will then select a "status envoy" to begin a shuttle diplomacy mission between Belgrade and Pristina aimed at securing a final, or at least "future" settlement of the territory's status.

Eide was in London last week to brief members of the Contact Group - which brings together Russia and major Western powers concerned with the situation in the Balkans - on the progress of his work.

More than 90 per cent of Kosovo's population of some 2 million is ethnic Albanian and is calling for nothing less than independence for the province. The Serbian authorities reject this and say that in any final settlement Kosovo can have "more than autonomy but less than independence".

Eide said he was particularly concerned about the issue of the return of mostly Serb refugees who fled Kosovo after the war. The Serbian authorities say there are 230,000 of them, but this figure has been disputed.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), only 6,027 Serbs have returned home since the end of the war. The agency said in a recent report that although there had not been an ethnically motivated murder in Kosovo in more than a year, Serbs and other minorities (mostly Roma) continue to suffer attacks, harassment, and intimidation. Cemeteries continue to be vandalized and "hate graffiti" is painted on municipal buildings.

Lack of commitment

"So far we don't see a commitment," said Eide. "The basic issue is the creation of a political environment conducive to substantive returns. I don't think it is there. There are Kosovo Albanian politicians who have that kind of commitment, but it can also be superficial and that goes right down the political structures of the parties to the ground," he said.

"There is progress, no doubt, there is a legal framework and in that they have come quite some way...but overall they could have made a lot more. Especially in creating the political climate they need, they could and should have done more," Eide said.

The ambassador views echo those expressed recently by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

Eide's words were not only directed towards Kosovo Albanian leaders.

"What I would like to see," he said, "is a strong commitment from the international players to the Kosovo issue."

However, "with such a complex international agenda it's hard to have a sustained commitment", he added.

He also said he had told Kosovo Albanian leaders that they had to take Kosovo Serb concerns into account, especially in the territory's assembly. He said he had told Serbian leaders that he wanted to see a return of the Kosovo Serbs into Kosovo's institutions, which they are currently boycotting.

Fear of renewed violence

During a recent ten-day visit to Kosovo, Eide either attended or held some 80 events and meetings. He then spent four days in Belgrade, before embarking on his current international tour to concerned organizations and governments in Brussels, Berlin, Rome, London, Paris, Washington, and New York.

He refused to be drawn on what he expected his recommendations to be. He said that Annan was his employer and that he would therefore be the first to know.

It is feared by many observers and diplomats that if Eide reports that Kosovo is not ready to begin talks on its future status then violence far worse than that which broke out in March 2004 could easily sweep the province again. Then, 4,000 Serbs and Roma were ethnically cleansed and 19 people died.

"Everyone in the international community wants to come to a positive conclusion, but it has to see progress and moves forward on the ground, but if they are not committed what can you do?" Eide asked.

Last week, Adem Demaci, a veteran Kosovar politician and former spokesman of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK) was quoted by the Serbian daily Blic as saying that unless Kosovo appeared to be on course for independence then a wave of violence against Kosovo's Serbs would erupt.

Later, he claimed that his words had been taken out of context, but added: "If the demands of the Albanians, who are up in arms, who made sacrifices, who gave everything they had for the state of Kosovo, for an independent Kosovo, are not taken into account then a situation will emerge where people will lose patience - it is already running out. And then anything can happen."

Asked what he would recommend if he did not see enough progress Ambassador Eide replied: "That is the one question I can't answer. I can't speculate but I do believe that, at this stage, more progress is needed."

(By Tim Judah in London)