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Serbia Cautious over Kosovo Progress

Vuk Jeremic

23 10 2007  Belgrade _ The latest round of talks over the long-term status of UN-administered Kosovo was gruelling but successful, Serbia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

“The opening of the talks was particularly difficult, and a question over the continuation of the [negotiating] process was raised,” Vuk Jeremic said, as quoted by Belgrade’s B92 TV.

His remarks echoed statements made by both Kosovo Albanian leaders and Serbian officials at Monday’s  internationally-mediated talks, with Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu saying that  the meeting in Vienna "unfortunately resulted in complete disagreement”.  For Kosovo Albanian reactions, see http://www.birn.eu.com/en/108/15/5360/

Jeremic said that the Serbian delegation at the talks had been involved “in attempts to provide peace and stability for all the people in the western Balkans."

Meanwhile, the Serbian authorities have offered a response to a 14-point document submitted before the talks by the “Troika” of mediators from the EU, Russia and the US, that excludes either the return of Serbian government to Kosovo or the physical presence of the Serb authorities there.

Although Kosovo has been administered by the UN since 1999 when NATO’s bombing campaign led to Belgrade’s withdrawal from the territory, it formally belongs to Serbia.

In a reply carried by Serbian public service TV, the country’s negotiating team said that Serbia would not govern Kosovo in spheres that it did not wish to get involved in, but that a separate agreement should define those areas where it wanted to retain control.

Serbian negotiators also rejected the Troika’s proposal that the two sides should develop special relations, as it felt that there was no room for such relations until the matter of Kosovo’s long-term status had been settled.

 
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority want full independence, while Serbia is insisting on keeping the province within its borders, at least formally, offering it broad autonomy.

 
Belgrade-based analysts described the talks as an attempt by the Troika to present a compromise proposal which could be acceptable to both parties.
 
Serbia’s former Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic told reporters that “the status issue was omitted from the document, and that fact gives both sides an opportunity to interpret the document the way they like“.

The talks are due to resume in Vienna on November 5.