Talks on Kosovo's future postponed until February after president's death

Associated Press, Jan 21, 2006 9:10 AM

 

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-The start of U.N.-mediated talks to determine the future status of Kosovo have been postponed until February following the death of Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, the spokeswoman for the chief U.N. negotiator said Saturday.

 

Hua Jiag said face-to-face talks planned for Wednesday in Vienna, Austria were postponed "due to the mourning period." The negotiations between Serbs and ethnic Albanians aim to determine whether Kosovo will become independent or remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.

Kosovo searches for Rugova successor as talks loom

Reuters, Sat Jan 21, 2006 06:07 PM ET By Matthew Robinson

 

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanians began the search on Sunday for a new president to lead the disputed Serbian province into independence negotiations after Ibrahim Rugova died aged 61, leaving no clear successor.

 

Rugova's death on Saturday of lung cancer left the 90 percent Albanian majority leaderless on the eve of direct talks with Belgrade to decide whether Kosovo becomes independent or remains part of Serbia, as Belgrade insists.

 

A charismatic and powerful figurehead, Rugova has no obvious replacement as president or at the helm of the Kosovo negotiating team. He will be buried on Wednesday, the day United Nations-mediated talks were due to begin.

 

The talks in Vienna have been postponed to early February.

 

Parliament has three months to vote in a new president but Kosovo's Western backers will want Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo to overcome bitter factionalism and nominate a successor sooner.

 

"I expect the momentum generated by President Rugova to be sustained, and that Kosovo's political leaders assume the responsibility to remain unified," said Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N. envoy appointed in November to chair negotiations.

 

Legally part of Serbia, the province of 2 million people has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of the "ethnic cleansing" of Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerillas.

 

The U.N. Security Council gave the green light to status talks late last year, responding to growing Albanian impatience with the status quo and U.S. warnings of fresh violence.

 

The major powers have signaled they want a decision on status within the year. Serbia says Kosovo is the cradle of the Serb nation and can never become independent.

 

But the Albanian majority has ruled out a return to Serb rule after years of repression in the 1990s, when Rugova turned the other cheek while he created a virtual underground state.

 

His policy of passive resistance was eclipsed by the guerillas in 1998, but he bounced back after the war and was twice elected president. Five days of mourning began on Sunday.

 

Diplomats say Western powers will likely steer negotiations toward a form of independence, under continued international supervision for years to come.

Serb leaders appeal for peace after Kosovo president's death

AFP, Web posted at: 1/22/2006 3:13:25

 

BELGRADE: Serb leaders appealed for peace and for dialogue with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority over the future status of the province to continue after the death yesterday of its president, Ibrahim Rugova.

 

"It is of utmost importance for Kosovo institutions to preserve peace in the province," said moderate politician Oliver Ivanovic, as quoted by Serbia's state-run Tanjug news agency.

 

However, he warned Kosovo's minority Serbs to be "cautious," and called on international officials in the province to "preserve peace and prevent possible unrest," Tanjug quoted him as saying.

 

Another Serb leader, Momcilo Trajkovic, offered his condolences to Rugova's family, but said his death "represents the end of the fanatic separatist movement aimed at creating an independent Kosovo."

 

"I hope that, despite Rugova's death, the dialogue between Serbs and Albanians (on the future status of Kosovo) will continue and will be wound up with the respect of international principles," said Trajkovic, who heads a small Serb party.

 

Milan Ivanovic, a nationalist Serb leader, warned that Rugova's death would "result in a power struggle among ethnic Albanian leaders."

 

"Rugova was a man with a certain democratic potential and a man who has never been accused of doing anything illegal," Ivanovic said. "Kosovo Albanians' position is weaker after the death of their president," Ivanovic said.

Rugova death leaves Kosovo leadership vacuum

AFP, 21/01/2006 14h15

 

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AFP) - The death of Ibrahim Rugova has opened the difficult issue of finding a replacement capable of filling the void left by the Kosovo president.

 

Rugova's disappearance from the political scene comes at a crucial time for disputed Kosovo's Albanian majority as they prepare for crucial talks on the future status of the UN-run Serbian territory.

 

Many analysts believe none of Rugova's likely successors possess enough of the diplomatic acumen that he had on the world stage in the ethnic Albanian push for independence from Serbia.

 

Rugova's death Saturday would make "the situation more fragile because the other leaders ... have no support from their parties to take the president's throne," local political analyst Nexhmedin Spahiu told AFP recently.

 

Within the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) party, which he founded and led with authority for 15 years, Rugova declined to earmark or prepare anyone to take over from him.

 

But one of the few LDK members to have survived a series of defections and resignations because of Rugova's leadership style is the current president of the parliament, Nexhat Daci.

 

The 61-year-old, who was born in southern Serbia's Presevo valley, appears certain to be among the candidates to succeed Rugova, but his political experience seems insufficient while his critics reproach him for not originating from Kosovo.

 

Far more charismatic than Daci however is 37-year-old Hashim Thaci, a former chief of the Albanian guerrillas that took on the forces of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo's 1998-1999 war.

 

Considered one of the more serious candidates to take over from Rugova, Thaci appeared on the public stage as the head of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the conflict.

 

He has since used his popularity as a war hero among Albanians to reinvent himself as a politician, but his chances of becoming president seem limited by possible charges of war crimes being levelled against him by Serbian authorities.

 

Rugova's job could also go to businessman and former journalist Veton Surroi, who the analyst Spahiu says is the only contender with full backing from his own party.

 

The 43-year-old, who owns Koha Ditore newspaper and KTV television network, has for years been a vicious critic of Belgrade-backed repression, as well as that for which his fellow Albanians were responsible.

 

A philosophy graduate and son of a former Yugoslav diplomat, Surroi recently launched into politics by founding his own party, ORA, with the objective of uniting Kosovo's fragmented political scene.

 

Kosovo's current prime minister, Bajram Kosumi, is a 45-year-old and the number two in the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo party who is also expected to stake a claim for the presidential role.

 

Kosumi made his career in the shade of Ramush Haradinaj, whom he replaced as premier when his predecessor was accused of war crimes by the UN war crimes tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands.

EU calls for 'unity and responsibility' in Kosovo after Rugova's death

AFP, Saturday January 21, 03:38 PM

 

BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called on the leaders of Kosovo to show "unity and responsibility" following the death of the province's president, Ibrahim Rugova.

 

"The loss of President Rugova comes at a particularly challenging time," Solana said in a statement.

 

"His wisdom and authority will be greatly missed. At this difficult moment I call on all leaders of Kosovo to show unity and responsibility," he added.

 

Rugova died Saturday of lung cancer, aged 61, only days ahead of the start of talks Wednesday in Vienna on the final status of the province.

 

The leadership of the charismatic Kosovo leader was considered crucial for the UN-mediated negotiations.

 

"With him Kosovo has lost a historic leader who devoted his life to protecting and promoting the rights of the people of Kosovo," Solana said.

 

"President Rugova was a man of peace, firm in the face of oppression, but deeply committed to the ideals of non-violence," he added.

 

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, also paid tribute to Rugova, saying in a statement that it "appreciated his work for a peaceful solution to the problems of Kosovo, and encourages all leaders to continue to work in this spirit."

Deciding Kosovo's fate

THE ECONOMIST (UK), Jan 21, 2006

 

Behind-the-scenes talks by outside powers have virtually set the new arrangement

 

If you were to assess the future of Kosovo only from the local media, you might think that megaphone diplomacy was all that was happening.

 

Kosovo will be Serbian forever, trumpet Serbia's leaders. The province's Albanian majority retort that nothing less than full independence will do for Kosovo's two million people, more than 90 per cent of whom are ethnic Albanians. It seems an impasse.

 

Yet behind the megaphones, tough negotiation has already taken place -- albeit not between Serbs and Albanians.

 

Since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, Serbia's southern province has been under the jurisdiction of the United Nations, which last November appointed Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, to start talks on Kosovo's future status.

 

The Serbs and Kosovo Albanians have assembled negotiating teams that are due to meet for the first time next week in Vienna. But much of the hard bargaining has already happened, among interested outside powers: The United States, Britain, France and Russia.

 

Given these countries' foreign-policy differences, the degree of consensus on Kosovo is surprising. Even Russian diplomats, who insist publicly they will back the Serbs, say the opposite in private.

 

The four powers all agree Kosovo should have "conditional independence," which is code for full independence after a transitional period, but with certain safeguards for Kosovo's remaining Serbs.

 

The only dispute is over tactics.

 

At present, all are pretending the future of Kosovo is to be settled in Ahtisaari's talks. But in private it is accepted that, since the two sides will never agree, the decisions will have to be taken for them.

 

British diplomats argue that the sooner an explicit guarantee is given to the Kosovo Albanians that independence in some form is coming, the greater the concessions they will be ready to make to Kosovo's 100,000-odd remaining Serbs. The French are more cautious, fearing that going public too soon may mean the Serbs refuse to engage in any talks at all.

 

If the outcome is already agreed, what is the point of Ahtisaari's negotiations? The answer, in the words of one diplomat, is that they "are not about the status of Kosovo...(but about) negotiating the status of the Serbs in Kosovo."

 

The Serbian government may still insist that Kosovo belongs to Serbia under international law, but such a position needs outside backing if it is to be credible.

 

Realizing that Russia's support is uncertain, the Serbs appealed last month to France. The French replied they would support Serbia's legitimate interests, but only if they were realistic -- and keeping Kosovo was not that.

 

A disappointed Boris Tadic, Serbia's president, is preparing a fallback position. If Kosovo's independence cannot be prevented, he is putting out feelers to see if Serbia can, at least, stop the Kosovo Albanians having their own army and, for the foreseeable future, a separate seat at the United Nations.

 

The Serbs give warning that, if Kosovo is lost completely, radical nationalists may come to power. A recent poll showed support for the nationalists holding up better than for other parties.

 

Yet this threat may not be that worrying. What would happen if the nationalists were to take control? Not much, shrugs one diplomat. Serbia's choice is, he says, "Belarus or Brussels" -- isolation or Europe. As with Hobson's choice, it is really no choice at all.

Kosovo-Metohija decentralisation issue needs concrete solutions

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

 

Source: Government of Serbia

Date: 14 Jan 2006

 

Belgrade, Jan 14, 2006 - In an interview for today's edition of the daily Politika, Aleksandar Simic, advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister and member of Serbia's and Serbia-Montenegro's negotiating team on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, said that the country hopes that the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for negotiations on the status of Kosovo-Metohija Martti Ahtisaari, and his deputy Albert Rohan, will use all their competence, knowledge and skills to ensure that talks on the future status of Serbia's southern province, which officially begin on January 25 in Vienna, be a successful dialogue between the two parties, out of which some concrete solutions to the decentralisation issue would emerge, before all the criteria for formation of new municipalities with Serb and ethnic Albanian majority and distribution of authority, which would guarantee a safe and normal life to Serbs and other non-Albanians in the province.

 

The Serbian government's official website gives excerpts of the interview.

 

Belgrade's platform for talks on the future status on Kosovo-Metohija says that the parliament of Kosovo will be able to pass decisions and laws regulating areas of vital importance for the Serbs in the province only if a majority of Serbian MPs vote for them. Will ethnic Albanians accept such a regulation in the Kosovo-Metohija constitution?

 

This position of the Serbian party is not something that is new for ethnic Albanians. Back in 2001, I was in a team drafting the Legal Framework of Kosovo-Metohija, which was subsequently renamed the Constitutional Framework. It was then that I demanded this provision should enter the Constitutional Framework as a safeguard for Serbs against ethnic Albanian outvoting. However, the demand was rejected. As a consequence, we are now witnessing difficult position of Serbs in the province and violation of their rights. It is time the rights of Serbs and other non-ethnic Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija be respected.

 

The platform suggests that international judges remain in higher courts in the province:

 

The situation in the judiciary in Kosovo is bad, which was also confirmed in the report of UN Special Envoy for the implementation of standards in Kosovo-Metohija Kai Eide. Higher courts should employ international judges, but Serbian judges as well. This is of prime importance since these courts will process appeals on decisions reached by municipal courts in litigations in which Serbs are involved. It is unacceptable that only ethnic Albanian judges consider the appeals.

 

Does the Serbian party still insist on the position that Kosovo-Metohija should exercise wide autonomy within Serbia?

 

By all means. That is the key position in the platform. In that respect, Serbia's negotiating team remains consistent.

 

When will the first three parts of the platform become known to the public?

 

Following the meeting in Vienna, our negotiation team will decide how and when the first three parts of the platform will be published. These chapters concern the international aspect of resolving the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, position of Kosovo-Metohija as a province with wide authority within Serbia, rights of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Serbia, as well as rights of Serbs and other non-ethnic Albanians in the province.

Anti-U.N. protesters in Kosovo clash with police; four injured

Associated Press, Jan 18, 2006 9:43 AM

 

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-Activists painting anti-U.N. slogans in Kosovo clashed with police Wednesday, slightly injuring four officers, officials said.

 

The fight was triggered when police moved in to arrest one of the demonstrators in the tense northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, police spokesman Larry Miller said.

 

Three people were detained before being released, Miller said.

 

But Albin Kurti, the leader of the protest group, said two of its members were arrested and beaten inside the police station before being released.

 

The protesters were from a group calling itself "Self-Determination," which has staged regular protests to demand that the United Nations leave Kosovo and painted slogans opposing the upcoming talks on Kosovo's future.

 

The group was painting the slogans on U.N. offices in the town, which has been divided for more than six years between an ethnic Albanian south and a Serb-dominated north.

 

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO air war halted the Serb offensive.

 

The ethnic Albanian majority wants independence, while Serbs living in Kosovo demand that it remain part of Serbia. Talks to discuss Kosovo's future are expected to begin next week in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova dies

Associated Press, Jan 21, 2006 6:35 AM

 

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, who had been suffering from lung cancer, died on Saturday, Kosovo officials close to the president said. He was 61.

 

A Western official in the provincial capital of Pristina confirmed that Rugova had died. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make a public announcement on the president's death.

 

Rugova, who came to embody ethnic Albanians' struggle for independence from Serbia, was officially diagnosed with lung cancer last September. The president, who had a cult status among some ethnic Albanians, had been a chain-smoker until he was diagnosed with the illness.

 

Rugova had been at the forefront of ethnic Albanian demand for independence from Serbia since the early 1990s, when he started leading a nonviolent movement against the policies of Slobodan Milosevic, then president of Yugoslavia.

 

His death comes at a sensitive time for the province, which is about to start negotiations on whether it becomes independent or remains part of Serbia. The ethnic Albanian majority want full independence, but Serbs want Kosovo to remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia.

 

His death will also leave the province's political scene grappling with possible succession battles.

 

No other Kosovo politician has been held in as much regard. He won international respect through the peaceful nature of his opposition to Serb dominance, in contrast to other Kosovo Albanians now in leadership positions, who were part of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army that fought Serb troops.

Russia, U.S. discuss minority rights in Kosovo

RUSSIAN INFORMATION AGENCY NOVOSTI, 19/01/2006 15:17

 

MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Rosemary DiCarlo met with Russian Foreign Ministry officials Thursday to discuss the rights of ethnic minorities in the Serbian province of Kosovo, the ministry's press office said.

 

According to the ministry, the sides agreed that international diplomats in Kosovo, which has been administered as a UN protectorate since the end of NATO's military campaign in the region in June 1999, should focus their efforts on enforcing Kosovar leaders' promise to uphold the rights of Serbs and other ethnic monitories and protect Christian shrines from destruction in this predominantly Muslim province.

 

The U.S and Russian officials also discussed Kosovo's final status talks, launched by the UN Security Council in October 2005, and cooperation between former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, appointed as the UN Secretary General's special envoy to the talks, and the six-nation Contact Group monitoring international policy in the region (the United States, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Russia).

UN mediation with Kosovo and Serbia begins in late January

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

 

Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Date: 16 Jan 2006

 

VIENNA, Jan 16, 2006 (AFP) - The first formal meeting between UN mediators, led by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, and representatives of Serbia-Montenegro and Kosovo over the future status of Kosovo will take place in Vienna on January 25, a spokesperson told AFP Monday.

 

Ahtisaari attended Monday a meeting of the Contact Group of six countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States) to discuss the future status of Kosovo, which is now an autonomous province in Serbia-Montenegro, the envoy's spokeswoman Hua Tiang said.

 

The ethnic Albanian majority in the UN-administered Serbian province is seeking independence.

 

The UN representative to Kosovo, Soeren Jessen-Petersen, also took part in the meeting held behind closed doors at the German embassy in Vienna, the embassy said.

 

"The (January 25) meeting will be focussing on (the) decentralisation" of Kosovo, said Hua.

 

The two governments are expected "to choose their representatives and hand over their papers" (on decentralisation), Hua said.

 

The European Union, NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe are expected to send observers.

 

Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland who helped negotiate peace in Bosnia-Hercegovina after the war there from 1992-1995, was appointed UN special envoy for the future status process for Kosovo in late 2005.

Monument to "KLA heroes" on church land

KiM Info Newsletter 18-01-06

Usurpation of Serbian Orthodox property in Kosovo and Metohija continues
 
KLA war memorial on church property in center of Djakovica next to municipal building (photo KIM Info Service)

KIM Info-Service, January 17, 2006

The Association of Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans, in cooperation with the Djakovica municipal assembly, has built a monument to "war heroes" on church property in immediate proximity to the Serbian Orthodox church of the Holy Trinity in Djakovica, which was destroyed after the war in 1999. This most recent attack on the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in direct cooperation with official municipal institutions, confirms that in addition to individual criminal acts in Kosovo illegal activities are being carried out also under the official auspices of institutions formed during the UN protectorate.

Vicar Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan, encharged by the Serbian Orthodox Church with the renewal of destroyed holy shrines in Kosovo, has officially notified the Holy Synod of Bishops, as well as Bishop Artemije of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren, of these developments as the church of the Holy Trinity in Djakovica is on the list for renewal according to the program of the Council of Europe.

At the same time, Bishop Teodosije has requested decisive and timely response from appropriate officials from UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen in order to ensure respect for the law and protection of the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Church will also be informing appropriate state officials of Serbia and Montenegro, diplomatic representations in Belgrade and their local offices in Pristina, as well as the office of Martti Ahtisaari in Vienna of this unprecedented act on the eve of upcoming negotiations, which are also to include discussion of Serbian Orthodox Church sites in Kosovo and Metohija.

The Church is seriously concerned that this event in Djakovica may become a precedent for expropriation of the Church land throughout Kosovo Province. There is already a serious suspicion that Municipal Cadastral offices are changing at their will existing cadastral records registering the church land as the municipal land. With Kosovo's judiciary almost in total chaos the Church is hardly in position to be able to find justice in local courts.

Text on memorial plate with official seal of officially disbanded KLA (photo KLA Info-Service)

The KLA war memorial is a boulder of two meters by two meters in size, with a gravel base and a plate bearing an inscription beneath the official seal of the officially disbanded KLA in the Albanian language as follows:

In the memorial city park dedicated to national heroes in the municipality of Djakovica/Gjakova, a memorial complex will be erected to the accomplishments of the KLA war.

The signature line identifies the Organizational Committee of the Association of KLA War Veterans and the Djakovica/Gjakova Municipal Assembly.

According to the date on the plate, the KLA war memorial was erected on December 31, 2005.

The newly build KLA monument, decorated with a double flagpole with the state flag of the Republic of Albania and the KLA war flag, is located not far from the Djakovica municipal assembly building and in the immediate vicinity of the location of the church of the Holy Trinity, which was destroyed by Albanian extremists in July 1999. According to available information, the war memorial is located on a parcel of land owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

According to information obtained by Bishop Teodosije, the first step toward the usurpation of church property occurred in 2002 when the municipal assembly of Djakovica, without any court proceeding or legal basis but with the support of the local UNMIK municipal administrator in Djakovica, illegally appropriated two tracts of land owned by the Church in the center of town. These who tracts of land had been restituted to the Serbian Orthodox Church by Serbian state officials in 1992 because an Orthodox church with the memorial tomb of Serbian soldiers from World War I, which had been destroyed by the Communist regime after World War II, was located there. At that time, the church owned land was simply given to the municipality of Djakovica in similarly illegal fashion. For a long time the remnants of the church served as a public toilet until the area was finally cleaned up and turned into a park. Construction of the new church of the Holy Trinity began at the end of the 1990s after the Church had regained possession of its former land.

The new church was built according to the architectural design of Prof. Dr. Ljubisa Folic and it was one of the most beautiful churches built in the period immediately preceding the war in 1999. The church was blown up by Albanian extremists on July 24, 1999. After its destruction, according to eyewitnesses, a general celebration followed accompanied by music and shooting which continued throughout the evening until the early morning. During the March 2004 pogrom, the ruins of the church of the Holy Trinity were completely removed and most of the population of Djakovica took part in this endeavor.

KLA war memorial built in immediate proximity to destroyed church of the Holy Trinity. To the right of the monument is the empty space where a church once stood. The Djakovica municipal building is located right behind the KLA memorial. (photo KIM Info Service).
 
According to information obtained by Bishop Teodosije, the Djakovica municipal assembly has been fully aware right from the start of the illegality of the construction of the KLA war memorial. Currently in the municipality there is not the slightest readiness to condemn the violation of the law, let alone to protect the property of the church which the municipality itself has forcibly usurped, sadly, with the silent acquiescence of the local UNMIK representative. Despite all efforts the KIM Info-Service could not get an official statement from the president of the municipality of Djakovica Aqif Shehu, who only days ago was involved in a serious automobile accident and is presently in a hospital in Skoplje.

In the meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether UNMIK and appropriate institutions will undertake concrete legal measures to prevent the usurpation of church property or ignore the law and property ownership rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church as it was done three years ago.

Just in the municipality of Djakovica during the course of the March 2004 pogrom three Orthodox churches were razed to the foundations and removed. In addition to the aforementioned church of the Holy Trinity, which was blown up with explosives and whose ruins were removed overnight, also destroyed were the churches of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos (19th century), the Holy Prophet Elijah in Bistrazin and the Holy Emperor Lazarus in Piskoti. According to available information, none of the perpetrators has been brought to justice to this day, and the removal of the ruins of these churches and all traces of their existence in their former locations took place with the full knowledge of the municipal administration, which remains in office.

The most recent case of usurpation of church property in Djakovica is just one of numerous instances of general usurpation of Serbian-owned property in Kosovo, which has been unfolding without interruption for years despite the presence of the UN international peacekeeping mission and KFOR forces. Taking into account the rapid continuation of transfer of full competencies to Kosovo institutions, the serious question must be posed to what extent this will further contribute to the continued violation of the law and complete eradication of traces of centuries of Serbian life in this region.

-----

CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY IN DJAKOVICA

Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Djakovica, built in 1998. After the church was torched inside and a valuable mosaic on the western facade destroyed, it was then completely destroyed with explosives on July 24, 1999. 
 
The church was built on the foundations of a previously existing church and memorial tomb dedicated to Serbian soldiers from World War I, which was destroyed after World War II by decision of the former Communist regime.

EU envoy to visit Kosovo

Associated Press, Jan 17, 2006 4:40 AM

 

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-The European Union envoy for Kosovo talks was to arrive in this disputed province Tuesday to discuss the EU's role in the process, an official said.

 

Stefan Lehne, who will represent the EU in the upcoming U.N.-mediated talks, will meet with Kosovo's leaders and U.N. officials, said Torbjorn Sohlstrom, an EU official in the province.

 

The two day visit will include discussions on the status talks process but also on the EU's future role in Kosovo, in the fields such as justice and police, after its status is decided, Sohlstrom said.

 

Lehne was appointed last year as EU's representative to help former Finnish President Martii Ahtisaari, who will lead those discussions. He currently serves as director for southeastern Europe at EU headquarters and is a senior adviser to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

 

European Union officials recommended late last year that the bloc take over policing duties in Kosovo from the United Nations, which has been administering the province since 1999, adding the EU had a responsibility to help rebuild the troubled Balkan province.

 

A report drafted by Solana and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn suggested the EU prepare for a police mission, which would be deployed after its future status has been decided.

 

Although still technically a province within the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since a 1999 NATO bombing campaign halted ex-president Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.

 

Serbian leaders want Kosovo to be split administratively between its majority Albanians and minority Serbs, granting Albanians self-government while keeping the province part of Serbia. Ethnic Albanians are pressing for complete independence from Belgrade.

 

U.N.-sponsored final status discussions for Kosovo are expected to begin next week in Vienna, Austria.

Serbia faces another territorial challenge amid Kosovo talks

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

 

Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Date: 16 Jan 2006

 

BELGRADE, Jan 16, 2006 (AFP) - A bid by ethnic Albanians for the autonomy of three southern Serbian towns risks escalating tension as talks on the future status of the neighbouring province of Kosovo enter a crucial phase, according to Serbian officials quoted in Monday's media.

 

At a joint session at the weekend, the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, where the Albanian population forms an overall majority, adopted a platform calling for political and territorial independence from Serbia.

 

The Albanians would seek unification with neighbouring Kosovo in the event of any regional border changes resulting from the talks on the province, according to the initiative unveiled Saturday in Presevo, 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of Belgrade.

 

In an apparent bid to benefit from the talks, the southern Serbian Albanians have called for the creation of special bonds with Kosovo and the establishment of a local police force to secure the region's frontiers.

 

The demands were rejected by the Serbian government, which denounced them as "inspired" by Albanian leaders in Kosovo as part of their tactics in the negotiations on the UN-administered province.

 

A Serbian minister said the Albanian plan was a "political and tactical move," an attempt to thwart the claims of Kosovo Serbs for decentralisation in areas of the province in which they are a majority.

 

"Demands for autonomy and special relations, the withdrawal of (Serbian) troops and police, are unrealistic political options, which have not received any support from the international community," Human Rights Minister Rasim Ljajic, who also heads Belgrade's Coordination Body for Southern Serbia, told independent B92 radio.

 

"Without wanting to be paranoid, the similarity of the claim (with that of Serbs in Kosovo) is so obvious that it pokes you in the eye," said Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, the Serbian official in charge of the Kosovo issue, as quoted by the state-run Tanjug news agency.

 

Serbia said last week that Serb-populated areas of Kosovo should be allowed to band together to form institutions to guarantee their rights. It is expected to adopt this stance during direct Kosovo status talks due to start in Vienna next week.

 

The status of Kosovo, which has been administered by the United Nations since mid-1999, is expected to be defined this year in the talks led by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

 

Belgrade insists that granting ethnic Albanians -- who make up more than 90 percent of Kosovo's population -- their wish for independence would destabilise the Balkan region.

 

The Albanians of southern Serbia said that they could start a campaign of "disobedience" towards Belgrade authorities if their "historical" initiative is not accepted.

 

The toughening of the stance of the Presevo valley Albanians is likely to revive tensions in the region where clashes occurred in 2000 and 2001 between Serbian forces and the now disbanded Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac Liberation Army (UCPMB).

 

The army of Serbia-Montenegro reinforced its presence in the area in November 2003, bringing an end to the conflict, but the return of stability to the zone has been complicated by its poor economic situation, a problem that Belgrade has had trouble rectifying.

 

The southern Albanians have already expressed their dissatisfaction with Belgrade by boycotting Serbian state institutions.

 

The risk of tensions in the area seems all the more real as, in line with the Albanians of Presevo valley, the Gorani, or Slavic Muslims, in the extreme south of Kosovo demanded to be recognised as a national minority on Sunday.

Kosovo Albanians Seek Compensation

FOCUS ENGLISH NEWS (BULGARIA), 16 January 2006 17:14

 

Albanians to demand millions of euro from Belgrade for damages inflicted on territory's economy since 1989.

 

By Arbana Xharra in Pristina

 

Kosovo's delegation plans to throw Serbia onto the defensive at final talks on the future political status of the United Nations protectorate by presenting Belgrade with a huge bill for damages.

 

The Kosovar delegation has set up a special team to handle economic issues, a subgroup of which is now itemizing the damages for which they say Serbia is liable.

 

This group, which first met on January 6, consists of 30 experts in economics, law and engineering, including officials from the presidency, the parliament, the Kosovo Trust Agency, which handles privatization, and the director of the Trepca mines.

 

The team is chaired by Muhamet Mustafa, director of the Riinvest Institute, a not-for-profit research institute.

 

"The experts will be divided into eight groups to organize their work better and approach each issue separately," Mustafa explained.

 

Among the issues he highlighted were income lost to Kosovars on account of anti-Albanian discrimination in the form of lost salaries, pensions and savings, war damage to property, foreign debt and the issue of succession to the old Yugoslav state.

 

The chairman said the team would also prepare a report on Kosovo's overall economic sustainability.

 

A member of the group, Muhamet Sadiku, said Kosovo ran up a foreign debt of 850 to 900 million dollars before 1989, when Serbia effectively scrapped the province's autonomy.

 

Until then, he said, the province of Kosovo managed its own foreign debt, much like the republics of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

"Since 1989 Serbia has managed Kosovo's debts illegally, which means that since then the institutions of Kosovo have had no direct access to information on this issue," Sadiku said.

 

Sadiku added that the topic of Kosovo's debts needed to be discussed with the involvement of international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, IMF, the World Bank and others.

 

"We expect the starting point of these discussions with the IMF and World Bank to be 1989, whereas all speculation [about Kosovo's debts] after this date belongs solely to the Serbian government," he said.

 

Kosovo lost its right to assume responsibility for part of the assets and debts of the old Yugoslav federation in the early Nineties, when the Badinter Commission, established by Brussels to establish the criteria for European Union recognition of the independence of the Yugoslav republics, declined to recognize Kosovo as an equal constituent part.

 

This had serious negative consequences for Kosovo, since it legitimized Serbia's right to hold onto Kosovo's share of the resources of the former Yugoslavia. Now, Kosovo wants its succession rights to be restored - and the team believes that future independence for Kosovo will force all partners to re-examine the issue.

 

As one of their main arguments, the expert team say, records clearly show that Kosovo contributed in the same way as the other federal units to the common assets of the old Yugoslav state.

 

Veton Surroi, leader of the opposition ORA party, and Ethem Ceku, the minister of energy and mines, agreed that the economics of Kosovo's divorce from Serbia have been insufficiently studied.

 

In December, they said the value of key economic assets, such as the Trepca mine complex in northern Kosovo, needed to be assessed and included in the final-status negotiations.

 

"Belgrade has made repeated claims regarding Trepca and the KEK [Kosovo's power company]," Mr Surroi said.

 

"But the Kosovo delegation has to make them aware of the damages they inflicted on both those fields during 1989 and 1999," he added.

 

Kosovar experts consider that Pristina should demand the return of pension funds worth 300 million euro, 150 million euro deposited on Kosovo's behalf in Serbian banks and several million euro to pay for other damages inflicted on Kosovo's public enterprises and property since 1989.

 

One member, Murat Mehaj, said information in the possession of the expert team undermines Serbia's overall claim to Kosovo, and especially its claims on Kosovo's formerly socially owned property.

 

While Mustafa said more experts may be enlisted into the team, the exclusion of certain names has invited criticism.

 

Kujtim Dobruna, of the Vienna-based Economic Initiative for Kosovo, ECIKS, who was not included in the team, argued that there are not enough young people on board.

 

"Young experts were left aside," he said. "Yet, they are more dynamic and do not carry any burdens from the past."

 

Arbana Xharra is a journalist for the Economy supplement of the Pristina daily Koha Ditore.