Kosovo: Serbian official denies readiness to divide province

ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY), Aug-14-06 15:12

 

London, 14 August (AKI) - Serbia's government hasn't changed its position on the status of the breakaway province of Kosovo, according to an official. Comments made last week by the government's coordinator for Kosovo indicating it might be ready to divide the province had been "misinterpreted and taken out of context," Serbian prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia spokesperson Andreja Mladenovic, said on Monday.

 

Serbian government coordinator for Kosovo Sanda Raskovic Ivic was quoted as saying to BBC last Friday that Serbia might agree to split Kosovo in a compromise solution, with Belgrade retaining under its control 15-20 per cent of the province. The statement caused commotion and confusion in Belgrade, because the Kostunica's government has so far roundly rejected independence for Kosovo, offering ethnic Albanians only wide autonomy.

 

Raskovic-Ivic statement was actually, talking only about two kinds of autonomy in Kosovo, one for ethnic Albanians with regard to Belgrade, and the other for minority Serbs, in respect of Kosovo's Albanian dominated institutions, said Mladenovic.

 

Raskovic Ivic was vacationing in Greece and was unavailable for comment, but her spokesman, Slavko Zivanov, confirmed to Adnkronos International (AKI) that Mladenovic's interpretation was correct. "There has been no change in policy: Kosovo's independence, as well as partitioning, is out of the question," he said.

 

Kosovo's overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority of 1.8 million wants independence - which is opposed by its tiny 100,000 Serb minority and by the Serb authorities. The international community, which has safeguarded peace in Kosovo since it was put under United Nations control in 1999, also opposes partitioning, and is trying to arrive at a compromise solution in ongoing UN-mediated talks between Belgrade and Pristina.

 

Seven rounds of UN sponsored talks in Vienna have however yielded scare results, triggering speculation that the UN might be forced to impose some kind of phased independence.

 

"The partitioning of Kosovo will not be tolerated, period," said UN administration spokesman in Pristina, Alexander Ivanko. Politicians in Belgrade also insist that Serbia cannot be partitioned, and that Kosovo must remain within its boundaries.

 

"To all those who are thinking about an imposed solution, Serbia can respond right now that such a solution would be unacceptable," Mladenovic commented.

 

Violence flared in the province when the Kosovo Liberation Army, supported by ethnic Albanians, came out in open rebellion against Serbian rule in the mid-1990s, triggering a brutal Yugoslav military crackdown.

 

Serbian forces began a campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' against Kosovo Albanians, triggering the NATO bombing campaign that drove Serb troops from the province. Some 800,000 people fled to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro and some 10,000 died in the conflict.