Serbia against Serbia

By Jerina Zaloshnja
Serbia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vuk Dra۫ovi桴ook advantage of the two day summit of the OSCE in Vienna at the beginning of the week, to publicly reiterate Serbia’s stand towards the Kosova issue. According to Dra۫ovi桡ny kind of settlement for Kosova will be a bad settlement, implying that Serbia seeks at least a preservation of the status quo in Kosova, an option that is not only useless, but also dangerous.
Simultaneously, the Serbian FA Minister had an intensive round of bilateral meetings with the FA Ministers of the OSCE member countries, seeking their support on the issue of the status of Kosova. This is neither an episodic or isolated effort. There is no doubt whatsoever that Serbia has thrown itself into a diplomatic offensive on a broad scale to prevent the proclamation of the status of Kosova at the end of January next year. A few days ago, President Tadic visited Berlin and other top level Serb officials have visited or held meetings with London, Paris, Beijing, and naturally, with Moscow. Diplomatic sources in Tirana admit that there is an escalation of Serbian diplomatic activity in the major capitals, canvassing for support against the independence of Kosova. Officially this is a diplomatic campaign to protect Serbia, but in essence it is nothing other than a campaign against Serbia itself. Serbia against Serbia. Dardan Velija, advisor to Prime Minister Ceku says that Serbia against Serbia is not a new phenomenon. If there is anything positive here, it is the fact that Serbia against Serbia is happening via diplomatic means and not military as we saw a decade ago in the Balkans.
It is na෥ to think that Kosova, administered by the United Nations for the last seven years could possibly return to the Serb fold. Moreover, Serbian statesmen themselves are convinced that the best solution for Kosova is its independence and discretely, among themselves, they don’t hesitate to express these stands.
A number of Serbian academicians and scholars have long since been insisting that the preservation of Kosova’s status quo has always constituted a fundamental obstacle to Serbia from the viewpoint of the development of democracy and the return of Serbia to the folds of the European family.
Russia has also joined the campaign of Serbia against Serbia. For interests that have nothing to do either with Serbia or with Kosova, or even with the Balkans for that matter, Russia is strongly supporting precisely the preservation of the status quo in Kosova. According to top Russian officials, Moscow backs a compromise settlement and it will use its veto on the Security Council if Serbia does not agree with the proposal of Ahtissari envisaged to be put forward publicly, immediately after the elections in Serbia. In other words, Russia is arming Serbia with a “new weapon”, Moscow’s right of veto on the UN Security Council.
Parallel to the diplomatic offensive of Serbia it seems that the government of Kosova and the other institutions have stepped up contacts with important centers of world policy making. Obviously for both sides it is clear: the International Community will be making the final decision on the issue of Kosova’s status based on the reality of developments. However, the difference is that the Serbians continue to build up their diplomatic offensive on the basis of a false reality which not even they themselves believe.