UNMIK ON AIR

ON THE EVE OF THE DIALOGUE

(By Zoran Culafic)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK ON AIR with Hysni Recica and Martin Redi

It has been four years since the war ended and it now seems like the time for serious talks between the two main sides in Kosovo has finally arrived. The race has begun and both Belgrade and Pristina are competing to announce publicly their readiness for the long awaited dialogue, though the positions of the former enemies are still far apart.

But, they are much closer indeed then they were some time ago. This is thanks to the pressure exercised by UNMIK, the EU and the USA on Belgrade and Pristina by explaining their common view that elementary democratic standards must be met in the region in order to reach a solution.

Nenad Radosavljevic, UNMIK’s chief senior advisor for Returns and Minority issues told us that he believes the EU will take a lead role in future talks between Pristina and Belgrade, which are expected to take place very soon.

Nenad Radosavljevic: I think the attention will be focused on major issues that the whole world have recognized, i.e. safety, freedom of movement, return and some other issues regarding the real and serious steps to stabilize the situation here. Having in mind all the stormy events in the past ten to fifteen years in this region, it is in the interest of both sides to include a mediator and in this case it’ll be the EU. I think that the EU is taking the major role in leading the talks and will decide the time when the talks will begin.

Although the Serbs believe that the US’s position is surely the most important political factor, Belgrade still believes the EU is the final destination of all the countries from this region. However, K-Albanians are looking directly toward Washington for guidance and support. Baton Haxhiu, a prominent Kosovo journalist has this to say:

Baton Hadziju: I’m aware that there will be pressure from the international community, particularly from the EU, that Kosovo remain in the frame of a Serbia-Montenegro federation, but I think that Serbia will not allow Kosovo to once again be part of such a federation. As for me, Kosovo needs only one minute of independence in order to enter the process of European integration. Without that minute of independence, neither Serbia nor Kosovo could enter the Process of Stabilization and Association. And after that minute of independence, it is normal that everyone will resign themselves to Balkan independence.

And as the clock ticks on, Zoran Zivkovic, premier of Serbia told us that Belgrade is ready for talks with Pristina.

Zoran Zivkovic: We are completely ready for the dialogue. For two and a half years we have been offering the dialogue to the Kosovo Albanian representatives. And we are ready for that today as well. I’m not sure that Pristina is ready, but it’s not up to me to judge it. For dialogue usually two sides are needed, but unfortunately in this case we need at least five – that is Pristina, Belgrade, Brussels, New York and Washington.

In Pristina one can hear essentially the same stance, K-Albanian political leaders are accusing Belgrade for not being ready to sit around the table. So, are the Serbs really ready to start the dialogue, as premier Zivkovic claims?

In Belgrade last week, the head of the Coordination center Nebojsa Covic held the latest meeting of K-Serb political leaders. It left Kosovo Serbs with suspicions about the essential unity inside the Serb political block. Rada Trajkovic claims that Covic is trying to take complete control of the Kosovo issue, leaving the Government of Serbia as just a dumb observer.

Rada Trajkovic: But I don’t think it’ll happen that all of that is going to be left in the absolute control of Mr. Covic. I don’t know well the political situation in Belgrade in the sense of what power is Mr. Covic going to force on his strategy, or whether he’ll agree to the common strategy. But I’m sure we definitely need to talk with Premier Zivkovic.

But the Serbs are not the only ones having internal political disagreements. Baton Hadxiu has his own opinion of why K-Albanian political leaders are not the most pragmatic.

Baton Hadxiu: The essence of the problem of the Albanians is a generational conflict. In second place is the fact that we do not have a political class. Our tragedy in Kosovo is not Ibrahim Rugova, our tragedy is that Ibrahim Rugova is the best politician we have in the frame of the Kosovo institutions. And if that is our problem, then we’ll need years to overcome what Serbia has done in two to three months Here we do not have courage, we do not have a political class, which is open to people, who could meet without any reservations with Serbian representatives and openly give their opinion on how to resolve this situation.

Nevertheless, looking at the political picture in Pristina and Belgrade now, one must admit that huge steps forward have been made since the war ended. Both sides in Kosovo agree that the talks are expected to start very soon - probably with the arrival of new chief of UNMIK.

And on that positive note we end this edition of UNMIK on Air. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.