Faik Krasniqi epitomizes the frustration sweeping Kosovo: He wants independence from Serbia, and he wants it now.
"People here have waited for very long — much longer than they deserve," said Krasniqi, a 50-year-old power plant worker. "After Dec. 10, they must decide for themselves."
Suspense is building with the approach of Dec. 10, the deadline for international mediators to report back to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on their faltering efforts to negotiate a settlement.
With no deal in sight, there are fears that Kosovo may declare independence unilaterally. Some observers warn that the breakaway province could become the first domino to fall — triggering a chain reaction of potentially violent secession across the Balkans and beyond.
"There is a risk that the situation will destabilize" and unleash a flurry of other independence declarations in the Serb half of Bosnia or ethnic Albanian-dominated northern Macedonia, said Alex Anderson, Kosovo project director for the International Crisis Group.
U.S. and European hesitancy over how best to handle the relentless drive for statehood by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority "has begun to loosen some of the foundations of the current state order in the western Balkans," Anderson said Tuesday.
"The patching together of states and protectorates that we've had since the end of the wars of the 1990s could come undone," he said.
Complicating matters is U.S. and Russia disagreement over the region.
The U.S. has said it is committed to recognizing Kosovo's independence. But Russia, a Serbian ally, has threatened to veto any proposal that gives the province statehood, arguing that it would set a dangerous precedent for separatists in parts of the former Soviet Union and worldwide.
Few expect more violence on a scale to rival the conflicts that bloodied the former Yugoslavia more than a decade ago. Bosnia's 1992-95 war alone killed 100,000 people and drove another 1.6 million from their homes.
But thinly veiled threats by Serbian nationalists, and the ominous resurfacing of an outlawed band of ski-masked Kosovo Albanian paramilitaries, have put NATO's 16,000-member peacekeeping force on guard.
Although Kosovo remains formally part of Serbia, it has been run by the U.N. and NATO since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Kosovo's Albanians demand full independence; Serbs insist the province must remain part of Serbian territory.
Braca Grubacic, a leading political analyst in Belgrade, doubts there will be large-scale violence if Kosovo unilaterally declares itself an independent state.
"I don't see the Serbian army and police going down there. No one in Serbia will allow war," Grubacic said.
"But I do not exclude isolated incidents, and I do not exclude that Serbs will be ready to defend northern Kosovo," where most of the province's beleaguered 100,000-strong Serbian minority live, he added.
EU foreign ministers, eager to avoid the specter of renewed unrest on their doorstep, have urged Kosovo's likely next prime minister — former rebel leader Hashim Thaci — to refrain from any unilateral independence declarations right after Dec. 10.
During weekend elections that his party won, Thaci vowed to swiftly declare a post-Dec. 10 split from Serbia. He since has backed off of that threat and has pledged to coordinate any move with the U.S. and Europe.
Talks between the rival sides, mediated by the so-called "troika" of the U.S., EU and Russia, remain deadlocked over the central question of whether Kosovo should gain independence.
The latest session Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium, was no exception: Neither side would budge.
"No one can fool us or impose upon us anything less than independence," said Kosovo's current premier, Agim Ceku. "We are getting close to the independence of our country, and there is no going back on this issue."
Although the two sides will meet again one last time in Vienna, Austria, next week, the prospects of a breakthrough appear increasingly slim.
Rather than declare statehood immediately after Dec. 10, Thaci instead could opt to announce a date — perhaps for sometime in late winter or early spring — that would be the province's "Independence Day" and serve as the ultimate deadline.
"They may be well-advised to do that," said the ICG's Anderson. "It would remove the day-to-day pressure for independence and could even help focus the EU."
The 27-member bloc is divided over whether Kosovo should gain independence, particularly if it makes a play for nationhood without U.N. approval. Spain, Greece and Cyprus all have separatist movements and fear Kosovo could set a dangerous precedent.
Even part of Kosovo itself — a province roughly the size of Belgium or Connecticut — could break away if its minority Serbs decide to join with Serbia.
"There is EU nervousness about the whole situation," Anderson said.
And there are concerns that stretch well beyond the Balkans.
Critics contend that if Kosovo is allowed to circumvent the U.N., there will be no moral or legal grounds to keep separatists in Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions — or others as far afield as Kashmir and Quebec — from following suit.
"This is the ace up the Serbs' sleeves," said Grubacic, the Serbian political analyst. "It's not that Kosovo is so important to the world. But it could create political turbulence in a wider sense."
Ordinary Kosovars don't much care, so long as their long wait is near an end.
"There have been too many delays," said Avni Kepuska, 72, an ethnic Albanian lawyer and author. "We can wait a week or two. But certainly not until spring."
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Associated Press Writer Nebi Qena in Kosovo contributed to this report.
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