Kosovo is heating up again

AXIS INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS, 16.11.2005 By Can Karpat, AIA Turkish section

 

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) warned the Kosovan Assembly not to undertake any initiative contrary to the negotiation process for the future of the region. Turkish Cumhuriyet analyses the situation and possible consequences of drastic moves by the local authorities in Kosovo. AIA brings a translation of the article.

 

"According to the news published in Kosovan press, the Assembly, which prepares to adopt the "resolution of independence" this Thursday, was warned by the UNMIK. The warning said that the Contact Group and the Special Representative of the United Nations General Secretary, Martti Ahtisaari, the special UN envoy for Kosovo and a former Finnish President, will oppose to the Kosovan Assembly's resolution of independence, and that also the UNMIK administration will cancel such a resolution. As to the Vetevendosje ("The Real Decision") Movement, which opposes to the determination of the final status of Kosovo through negotiations imposed by the United Nations, it keeps organising demonstrations against the UNMIK administration.

 

According to the information coming from Brussels, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, in its new resolution, asked for respect for the United Nations Security Council's resolution 1244 before the negotiations for the final status of Kosovo will start. This resolution of the United Nations Security Council, which had been adopted after the military operation led by the NATO in Kosovo in 1999, qualifies Kosovo as part of Yugoslavia.

 

In that resolution, there are also requests from other member states of NATO and their governments to apply the standards for Kosovo, to continue with the decentralisation process, to protect rights of the Serbians and other minorities and to help the Serbian refugees to return.

 

After the United Nations declared that negotiations would start in order to determine the final status of Kosovo, the Kosovan Assembly declared in turn its firm determination for independence, and then it postponed the approval of the "sovereignty and independence declaration of Kosovan state" until Thursday, the 17th of November.

 

Nevertheless, the United Nations proposes to maintain the unity of Kosovo, to grant to Serbians of the region some autonomy and to permit to the NATO Peace Forces to stay for an undetermined term in the region. Kosovo, which is administrated by the United Nations for six years, is still judicially part of Serbia-Montenegro. Of 2 million of Kosovan population, 90 per cent of which are the Albanians and the rest is consists of Serbs and other minorities. While the Serbians are demanding for Kosovo to be attached to Serbia-Montenegro, the Albanians are pleading for independence.

 

The United States Foreign Affairs Undersecretary, Nicholas Burns, who declared in mid-October about the beginning of negotiation for the final status of Kosovo, also stated that the independence of Kosovo is an option as well.

 

The Vetevendosje Movement, which has become very active recently in Kosovo, intensified its activities against the UNMIK. Recently, the members of the Movement set fire to the inscription with the name of the UNMIK on it waving over the castle in Prizren. They also put up three huge banners with inscriptions like "UNMIKolonialism" meaning "UNMIK the colonist" and signed "Vetevendosje". And before that, they changed the "UN" inscription upon the UNMIK vehicles as adding an "F" before the "U" and a "D" after "N". That modification, which gave "FUND", means the "end" in Albanian language.

 

Furthermore, the increasing number of student joining in the movement is highly significant".