Security
Council told that Kosovo remains calm but tense
10 May 2007 – Although the overall security situation
in Kosovo is calm, tension is palpable in the ethnic Albanian
majority Serbian province that the United Nations has administered
since 1999, according to a new report by on last month’s
Security Council fact-finding mission made public today.
“Security is an essential
pillar of any society and that is even more so for societies
emerging from a violent and brutal conflict such as Kosovo,”
Ambassador Johan Verbeke of Belgium, the head of the six-day
mission, told
the 15-member Council.
The report, based on the mission’s
findings, noted that “while the Kosovo Albanian community
is confident about the future, the Kosovo Serb community is
apprehensive about its prospects for the future.”
Although Kosovo, where Albanians
outnumber Serbs and others by nine to one, remains divided between
the two communities, the report said that there were encouraging
signs, such as “the commitment to build a Kosovo for all
its communities, conveyed by Kosovo’s political leaders.”
Just as divided are the positions
of Serbia and Kosovo Serbs, on the one hand, and Kosovo Albanians
and non-Serb communities, on the other, regarding the province’s
future.
While Belgrade and Serbs residing
in Kosovo were adamantly against a solution that would lead
to independence, the province’s Albanians were optimistic
that a solution would be reached soon.
In March, a report was issued
by the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the future
status process Martti Ahtisaari, who said the only viable option
for Kosovo was a phased process of independence.
The fact-finding mission’s
report also expressed concern at the very low numbers of internally
displaced returning to their homes. Despite there being mechanisms
in place for people to repatriate, many are discouraged by complex
procedures, security concerns and limited economic prospects
in the province where unemployment hovers near 60 per cent.
Last week, Mr. Verbeke
briefed the Council on the mission’s visit, which was
undertaken based on a Russian proposal, to Pristina, Belgrade,
Brussels and Vienna.
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Kosovo’s
communities remain far apart, says head of UN fact-finding group
2 May 2007 – Kosovo’s ethnic
Albanian and Serbian communities continue to lead largely separate
existences and have very different outlooks on the future, which
means creating an integrated, multi-ethnic society in the province
will require “substantial effort,” the head of a
Security Council fact-finding mission said today.
Briefing the Council on the
mission’s six-day trip to Pristina, Belgrade, Brussels
and Vienna, Ambassador Johan Verbeke of Belgium said the positions
of the two communities on the settlement proposal for Kosovo
also remained far apart.
The leadership of the Kosovo
Albanian community backed the report issued in March by the
Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the future status
process Martti Ahtisaari, who said the only viable option for
the Serbian province – which the United Nations has administered
since 1999 after Yugoslav troops were driven out amid fierce
fighting – was a phased process of independence.
But the leaders of the Kosovo
Serb community, as well as the mission’s interlocutors
in Belgrade, remained opposed to independence and wanted further
negotiations on the long-term future of Kosovo.
Mr. Verbeke said this division
was reflected in the communities’ outlook, with Kosovo
Albanians optimistic about what it holds and Kosovo Serbs concerned
that their rights will not be sufficiently protected.
Although the fact-finding
mission was impressed with the expressed commitment of Kosovo’s
political figures towards creating a more genuinely multi-ethnic
society, he said the divisions between communities meant it
would still require “substantial effort.”
Mr. Verbeke stressed
that the mission had been very useful in providing participants
with a first-hand perspective of the situation inside Kosovo,
where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs and other groups by about
nine to one.
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