Crisis group urges U.N. to vote on Kosovo’s status next week

PRISTINA, May 15 – A crisis group recommended Tuesday that the United Nations Security Council needs to decide Kosovo’s status within the upcoming weeks or risk re-igniting violence that would again destabilize the Balkans.
“The choice is now between an imposed international solution and no solution at all for the foreseeable future”, warns Sabine Freizer, the Crisis Group’s Europe Program Director. “Any delay in coming to a decision on Kosovo’s status will seriously complicate an already fragile situation, and partition would benefit only the extremists”.
The International Crisis Group’s report also suggested that the United States and European Union should make small revisions in the U.N. plan on Kosovo’s independence to allow Russia, which opposes the province’s split, a face-saving retreat.
“The Crisis Group recommends small revisions to the plan, however, in order to demonstrate responsiveness to Russia’s prerogatives, creation of a Special Envoy for Minorities and a two-year moratorium before Kosovo can apply for UN membership (should be considered),” said the report.
U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari recommended last month that Kosovo be granted internationally supervised independence, a proposal endorsed by its ethnic Albanian majority but vehemently rejected by the Serb minority, Serbia and Russia, which has strong cultural and religious ties to the Serbs.
The group “calls on the Council to pass a resolution endorsing the Ahtisaari plan, with only such non-critical modifications as may help persuade the main hold-out, Russia, not to veto (the plan).”
“The Ahtisaari plan is the best recipe for the creation of a democratic and decentralized society that ensures minority rights”, says Alexander Anderson, the Crisis Group Kosovo Project Director. “By decentralizing governing powers to the municipalities, the proposal works well with the European Union’s multi-ethnic vision for the Western Balkans”.
The U.S. and EU nations circulated a draft U.N. resolution last week endorsing independence for Kosovo under international supervision despite strong objections from Russia, which holds veto power over any resolution as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
Russia has warned strongly against putting the plan to the vote at the U.N and threatened to block it. It has also circulated elements for a rival Security Council resolution urging more talks between ethnic Albanian and Serbian leaders and efforts to protect minorities and allow for their return to prewar homes in Kosovo.
The major obstacle to Kosovo independence is the threat of a veto by Russia, which insists Kosovo and Serbia must agree on the province’s future. Ahtisaari mediated talks for more than a year before concluding such agreement was impossible. The Crisis Group agrees and points out tensions in Kosovo could well pass the breaking point soon if the status issue is not resolved by summer. The Crisis Group recommends small revisions to the plan, however, in order to demonstrate responsiveness to Russia’s prerogatives, in particular creation of a Special Envoy for Minorities and a two-year moratorium before Kosovo can apply for UN membership.
The International Crisis Group concluded that the recommendation of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari for “supervised independence” and his detailed implementation proposals are the best that can be achieved.
The International Crisis Group, based in Brussels, is independent and widely respected. Its board includes former EU commissioner Chris Patten, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Thomas Pickering, the former German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, and the financier and philanthropist, George Soros.
The group also called on the ethnic Albanian leaders, who are growing increasingly impatient, to refrain from declaring independence unilaterally and to design a strategy to protect Kosovo’s Serb minority during the first weeks of independence.