Serbia lobbies for Kosovo talks two years after independence

02/03/2010

Belgrade steadfastly refuses to accept Kosovo as an independent state. While both countries await a court decision, talks of new negotiations and strategies abound.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 02/03/10

"We will not allow that which is ours to be taken away from us," Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said. [Getty Images]

Two years after Kosovo declared its independence, Serbia wants to relaunch status talks. Belgrade hopes that the ruling of The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) -- expected this year -- will back its position that Pristina's declaration of independence violated international law.

That opinion is shared by Russia, which believes Western forces promised Kosovo independence. Russia maintains that Kosovo Albanians did not make an honest effort to negotiate before declaring independence from Belgrade in February 2008.

Serbian government sources told SETimes that the US, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy -- using diplomatic channels via the French Embassy in Belgrade -- delivered a note to the government protesting rhetoric used by Serbian officials on the issue of Kosovo.

The nations insist that Kosovo's independence is irreversible and that they will not support new status negotiations.

"We are facing a difficult time in which pressure on Serbia will increase," said Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic on state television. "We will not wage war, but we also will not give in; we will not allow that which is ours to be taken away from us."

Ian Bancroft, a British journalist and executive director of TransConflict, an organisation dealing with issues in the Western Balkans, told SETimes that Belgrade will not relent on the subject.

Serbia, Bancroft said, "will insist on new negotiations, call for support for that position in the international community and try to prevent new recognitions of Pristina".

At the same time, Bancroft said, EU leaders will not force Belgrade to acknowledge an independent Kosovo, but will insist on "good neighbourly relations" between the two countries.

"That will allow individual member states to themselves interpret whether or not Serbia is demonstrating a constructive attitude towards Kosovo," said Bancroft. "This will have a direct impact on the pace of Serbia's EU accession."

Belgrade will work to prevent implementation of a strategy by the International Civil Office (ICO) and the Kosovo government to impose authority from Pristina in the heavily Serb-populated north. Pristina currently has virtually no control in the north, where Kosovo Serbs are organised in municipalities under the Serbian government.

Pristina calls the Serbian structures "parallel", whereas Joint Force Command Naples Commander Admiral Mark Fitzgerald has described them as "a threat to Kosovo security".

The ICO plan calls for the formation of a Northern Mitrovica municipality and the appointment of a municipal government under the authority of Pristina. The same approach would then be applied to other Serb municipalities.

Belgrade has harshly criticised the strategy, saying it only "feeds the hopes of radical Albanians".