By Birol Urcan

Hello and welcome from UNMIK On air, you are listening to our week in review.

Annan appoints officially Martti Ahtisaari as Status envoy

Kosovo institutions welcome appointment of Ahtisaari as negotiator

Resolution on independence to be passed on 17 November

School starts after 26 days of strike

Serbia resolved to keep Kosovo and Metohija, says Kostunica

The U.N. Security Council will officially confirm the appointment of the former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari, as the U.N. special envoy for the future Kosovo status talks, most probably on Nov. 2, Serbina news agency BETA was told at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Nov. 1.

A spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General, Brenden Varma, told BETA in a telephone interview that the Security Council would reply, most probably on Nov. 2, to a letter Kofi Annan sent it on Oct. 31, in which he informed them about the intention to appoint Ahtisaari as special envoy.

Varma said that the Security Council replies to similar letters of Secretary General within a day or two, and their reply is seldom negative

He added that, in Annan's letter, the former general secretary of the Austrian Defense Ministry, Albert Rohan, was proposed as the deputy of the U.N. special envoy.

While the names of deputies from the U.S., Russia and the EU, and the date of their appointment, were still not known.

The daily press of Prishtina reports that Kosovo institutions and political parties have welcomed the appointment of former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari as the UN special envoy on talks on Kosovo’s status.

Zëri quotes representatives of local institutions and political parties as saying that Ahtisaari and his team will have the support of the Kosovan side.

Zëri also quotes President Rugova’s spokesman Muhamet Hamiti as saying, “We believe that Mr. Ahtisaari and the emissaries from the US and Europe, together with the Contact Group, will create the framework for resolving the status based on the political will of the people of Kosovo for independence and for full respect of civic and minority rights.”

Kosovo’s Parliament Presidency decided on Tuesday that the text of resolution for independence should be harmonized before November 17 in order to be included in the agenda of the Parliament’s session.

On the contrary it will be included in the agenda of November 17 without being harmonized.

If the text is harmonized prior to the date, then Kosovo MPs will gather in a special session with the resolution as only point of the agenda.

Currently, the Parliament has two versions of the resolution, which do not differ much.

“We insist that this process should take an end as soon as possible, and a resolution should be introduced to the parliament in a special session for its approval. I see here a common goal; this document should be qualitative, and serve Kosovo’s future,” Said Fatmir Sejdiu, member of the presidency from LDK on Tuesday

After 26 days of strike the school started on Monday.

The strike ended on last Friday after an agreement for increasing of teachers’ salaries by seven euros and implementation of the collective contract in education sector.

Although not content, the Head of Education Trade Union of Kosova (SBASHK), Ali Shabanaj said on Friday that they have finally reached an agreement with the Ministry of Education to stop the strike.

The Chief of US Office in Prishtina (USOP) Phillip Goldberg said on Monday that the time has come for the people in Kosovo to stand together on their ideas and proposals, so that everyone could move forward in the initiated process.

Goldberg made these comments following a meeting with Kosovo’s Parliament Speaker Nexhat Daci.

“I believe that it is time for people to stand together on their ideas and proposals so that everyone could accept the step for moving forward, because it is of the great importance for Kosovo “, said Goldberg

The meeting took place without any prior announcement to media.
The Parliament Speaker on the other hand did not make any comment regardless of media insistence.

Monday’s meeting comes after the failure of Kosovo Negotiation Team to harmonize their ideas to move forward.

Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica said during a visit to Mount Athos that Serbia cannot be divided

"Serbia is resolved to keep Kosovo and Metohija. It is clear that no part of our territory can break away, and it is clear that Serbia cannot be divided," Kostunica told reporters during a visit to the Hilandar monastery.

Kostunica also said that Greek officials assured him that "there can be no imposed solution" for the future status of Kosovo and that it must be sought within existing international rules.

This was all for today from our week in review, thank you for listening and have pleasant weekend