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Kosovo Nervous About Response to Final Status Ruling

26 01 2007  Special negotiating team to deal with Kosovo's reaction to Ahtisaari's decision because government deemed by some to be too unstable to handle process.

By Krenar Gashi in Pristina (Balkan Insight, 26 Jan 07)

Marti Ahtisaari, the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo’s, will fly to Pristina and Belgrade on February 2 to present his solution for the territory’s final status.

But while Serbia’s reaction to the final-status plan will be in the hands of its government, Kosovo has made different arrangements.

There a five-member negotiating team, the so-called Team of Unity, set up in 2005, will decide Kosovo’s reaction to the UN envoy’s solution.

While some critics claim the team’s powers go against democratic principles, and that it lacks transparency, politicians maintain it will bypass delays and more efficiently handle final status business.

The international community supported the creation of the team. The big powers want to make sure acceptance of UN proposals –likely not to deliver the full independence Kosovars want - does not founder over a government crisis, or the government’s lack of a majority in the Kosovo assembly.

In this way, the fragile governing coalition, will share the responsibility of accepting the international proposal for the status, thus avoiding further criticism once the status is resolved.

The team was first formed and led by Kosovo’s late president, Ibrahim Rugova. After his death, several major changes occurred and it now includes the president of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu, the speaker of the assembly, Kole Berisha, Prime Minister Agim Ceku and opposition leaders Hashim Thaci and Veton Surroi.

Representing a broad coalition of all major political parties, it has been seen as a factor of unity, though some complain of a lack of transparency in its work.

Nontheless, its competences have grown since it was established - one reason, say analysts, being that the current government is unstable, and may not have the required majority in the assembly to approve the UN proposal.

The current fragile administration, formed in 2004, comprises a coalition of Rugova’s Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, and the Alliance for Future of Kosovo, AAK, led by Ramush Haradinaj.

Together, it originally held 66 of the 120 seats in the assembly, a narrow majority. But after the latest LDK congress in December 2006, the former speaker of the assembly, Nexhat Daci, and half a dozen followers walked out to form a new political party.

This new party, which yet to formally register, numbers at least six of the 49 LDK assembly members, which is enough to take away the government’s majority.

Sources in the Kosovo government say the opposition parties have since put pressure on it to hand more competences to the Team of Unity.

“This is absolutely convenient for the opposition as in this way they can make decisions and take no responsibility,” said a government source.

But opposition member Ylli Hoxha, of Surroi’s ORA party, said, "The government is in crisis. Indeed it was never efficient, which is precisely why we had to form this body [Team of Unity] in order to make decisions for the good of the people.”

Analysts believe that Haradinaj's absence from Kosovo while having to attend his war crimes trial in the Hague that starts on March 5 is further going to weaken this government, making it seem illegitimate.

Nexhmedin Spahiu, an analyst from Mitrovica, said the establishment of the Team of Unity is against the basic principles of democracy. “When you create such institutions over the government, you devalue your government,” said Spahiu.

Spahiu added that this was the result of having a weak government that barely had a majority in the assembly.

Ilir Dugolli, an analyst with the Kosovar Institute for Research and Development, KIPRED, agreed. “During the last four years, the government and assembly have shown that they are not capable of making any major decisions,” he said.

Dugolli added that pressure from international community had contributed as well. “This is convenient mostly to the international community,” he said. “It is much easier to make decisions within a group of five than with 120 members of parliament.

“This may be considered as an act against democratic principles, but it is the only way out from the transition period."

Skender Hyseni, spokesperson of the Team of Unity, said the process was “normal, as the Team of Unity consists of all the major parties in Kosovo.”


Krenar Gashi is BIRN Kosovo Assistant Editor. Muhamet Hajrullahu and Bukurie Bajraliu also contributed to this article. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.