Ahtisaari comment draws fire in Serbia

30/08/2006

UN envoy for the Kosovo talks Martti Ahtisaari's comment to the Belgrade negotiating team earlier this month has drawn fire from Serb officials. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has said the government will take diplomatic action.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 30/08/06

Comments by UN envoy for the Kosovo talks Martti Ahtisaari have been criticised by Serbian officials. [Getty Images]

Statements made earlier this month by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari have sparked accusations by Serbian officials that the envoy is sympathetic to ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Tuesday (29 August) that the government will "undertake diplomatic action to inform the international community of 'serious prejudices' Ahtisaari has about Serbian people", Belgrade's FoNet news agency reported.

Ahtisaari's statement that "the Serbs are guilty as a nation" for crimes against Albanians in 1998 and 1999 was made to the Belgrade negotiation team on 8 August.

UN secretary general spokesperson Brandon Varma has said that Ahtisaari's words were "taken out of context" and that "he only wanted to say that historical heritage cannot be ignored."

"When you hear this statement, all vague talk of narrower or wider context becomes meaningless. The Serbian people have become well acquainted with the only context of this remark," Kostunica told FoNet.

Ahtisaari later tried to clarify his remarks, saying, "Every nation carries a burden for which it has to pay." While the new democratic leadership in Belgrade cannot be blamed for the policies of former President Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo, Ahtisaari said, "leaders in Belgrade must face a historic inheritance and accept responsibility for the past years".

Despite the clarification, Serbian officials have denounced Ahtisaari. Serbian Co-ordinating Centre for Kosovo director Sanda Raskovic-Ivic proposed on Monday that Serb officials ask UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to exclude Ahtisaari from future Kosovo status talks.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Raskovic-Ivic said that Ahtisaari's statement blaming the Serbs collectively for the situation in Kosovo "has degraded and insulted the Serbian people", putting him squarely on the side of the Kosovo Albanian negotiators.

Ahtisaari's statement was the topic of a Belgrade negotiation team meeting on Monday. Team members said that Ahtisaari acted in contradiction of "the mandate he received from the UN secretary general", and that he has "put his position as the UN secretary general's special envoy for the future status of Kosovo in serious jeopardy". The Belgrade team is led by Kostunica, Serbian President Boris Tadic and Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic.

"It would be too hasty to make a conclusion today that Serbia will or will not call for Ahtisaari's recall," Kostunica said at the meeting. "We will see what Ahtisaari does after all this and we will also see what results our diplomatic action will yield."