The West Screws Over The Kosovars

"Give Us More Time," NATO Asks Kosovo

By matt Robinson
Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:50pm ET
Reuters

PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - NATO on Friday asked Kosovo Albanians to give Western powers more time to steer their independence from Serbia through the United Nations, but admitted the project was in trouble.

..."Please show restraint and patience. Give the process some more time," he said, following a meeting with Kosovo Albanian prime minister Agim Ceku.

But referring to the diplomatic deadlock created by Russia's rejection of independence in support of its ally Serbia, de Hoop Scheffer warned that "unnecessary delay is not advisable".

"There should be flexibility in the Security Council," he later told a news conference at Kosovo's military airport. "That's another call on our Russian partners and friends to show flexibility and make a Security Council resolution possible."

Ceku said he was "worried about the loss of credibility in the international process because of continued delay".

NATO powers with troops in Kosovo are increasingly concerned at the prospect of a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo's 90 percent Albanian majority if Russia continues to block Western plans for its secession.

Complaining of a "crisis of trust", Kosovo leaders have threatened to go it alone, a move diplomats say would split the 27-member European Union and undermine its plan to take over supervision of Kosovo from the United Nations.

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Western powers had promised 'supervised independence' for Kosovo by mid-year, having twice delayed in 2006 to limit the expected fallout in Serbia. But Russia has threatened to veto a draft U.N. resolution, testing the resolve of the West and raising fears of unrest.

The latest draft U.N. resolution offers another 120 days of talks between Serbia and Kosovo Albanians, on top of 13 months of direct dialogue that ended in stalemate in March.

Kosovo Albanian...are due to stage protests in the capital, Pristina, on Saturday, calling for a referendum on independence and the withdrawal of the U.N. mission that has run the impoverished territory since 1999.

Serbia opposes independence for Kosovo, cherished by many Serbs as their spiritual heartland. It insists on maintaining its existing borders but has no proposals for incorporating two million unwilling ethnic Albanians into Serbian society.

Serbia lost control of the province as a result of NATO air strikes which ended the 1998-99 war against Albanian separatist guerrillas, in which 800,000 Albanians were expelled. Independent estimates put the civilian death toll from the war at between 7,500 and 12,000, mostly Albanians.

Bill Clinton, who was U.S. president at the time of the NATO bombardment, said on Friday that Kosovo independence was inevitable despite Russia's opposition.

"The question is, is there another deal? I really see no alternative but to accept the Ahtisaari plan, so sooner or later this is going to happen," Clinton said in the Ukrainian resort of Yalta, where he was addressing a conference.

Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland, is the U.N.'s mediator in talks on Kosovo.

(Additional reporting by Sabina Zawadzki in Yalta)

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