Independence demand revives fear in Balkans

By Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor

THE leader of Kosovo gave a warning yesterday that his people would not settle for anything less than full independence and statehood by the end of the year.

Amid growing calls for a decision on the province’s status to be delayed until 2007, Agim Ceku, the prime minister of Kosovo, said his countrymen could lose faith with the international community if the promise of sovereignty was snatched away from them at the very last moment.

While the world’s attention has been focused on events in the Middle East and Afghanistan, experts fear that the Balkans, where wars raged for much of the 1990s, could erupt again unless the current situation is carefully handled.

At issue is the status of Kosovo, a province of Serbia until 1999, when the area was seized by Nato forces and placed under United Nations control as a protectorate.

Kosovo has remained in this political limbo ever since. But Martti Ahtisaari, the UN envoy to Kosovo, has been formulating an agreement that would recognise the province’s independence, the dream of the majority ethnic Albanian population.

Mr Ceku, 45, who met Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, described his country yesterday as “the final piece of the European puzzle”. He told The Times: “If we win independence it will silence the extremists. We will close the door on the Balkans’ history.”

The United States and Britain support his view and the move to independence was expected to be contained in a report by Mr Ahtisaari due to be completed by early next month.

But other countries in the six-nation Contact Group are more sceptical. Russia, which has traditionally supported its orthodox brethren in Serbia, is adamant that no solution should be imposed against the wishes of any party.

Belgrade insists that Kosovo must remain part of Serbia and has called a referendum at the end of this month for a new constitution, which explicitly states that it remains a province of the Serbian state. Serbs will then go to the polls for general elections in December.

This has persuaded some European players that it would be best to postpone a decision on Kosovo until 2007 or risk handing ultranationalist Serb forces an election victory.

A senior official from a neighbouring country said: “Unless you live next to Serbia it is hard to understand the volatility of the situation. I cannot exaggerate the danger of making a decision on Kosovo’s status against Serbia’s wishes. Solving Kosovo could create a whole new conflict in the region.”

Western diplomats are also concerned about the impact farther afield. Russia has made it clear that if the West pushes for an independent Kosovo, it would see no reason to prevent pro-Russian regions also seeking independence. It has in mind Trans-Dniester, a breakaway province of Moldova, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in Georgia.

Nearer to home, Kosovo’s neighbours in Serbia and Macedonia fear that an independent state ruled by the majority Albanian population could rekindle separatist moves among their own Albanian populations.

A Nato-led force provides security for Kosovo but if there were a flare-up of violence between Serbs and Albanians Britain would be expected to send reserve troops to restore order.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2401898,00.html

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