BELGIUM: Kosovo talks fail to break deadlock

Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders failed again to break a deadlock over the future of the breakaway Serb province but agreed to hold three days of intensive talks next week ahead of a Dec. 10 deadline. Both sides stuck to their long-standing positions, Kosovo Albanian negotiators rejecting a Serb offer of broad autonomy and insisting on EU-supervised independence, a statement issued by European, U.S. and Russian mediators said. "Pristina described its vision of Kosovo's supervised independence in line with the recommendations of U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari," the written statement said. "Belgrade continued to elaborate to Pristina its vision of a highly autonomous Kosovo inside the borders of Serbia." The next round, which will be the first to last more than a day, will take place in Baden, Austria from Nov. 26 to 28. Serb leaders rejected a "status-neutral" proposal by EU mediator Wolfgang Ischinger setting out contractual ties between Pristina and Belgrade but without pre-judging a subsequent decision on Kosovo's final status. ''Neutral status is another name for Kosovo and Serbia being independent and Serbia not pretending that Kosovo is independent. It is a trick. It's very simple. On the other hand, really I know that the law has been developing and that the law doesn't look today as it looked may be ten or fifty years ago. I never heard of the phrase or the construction like 'neutral status'. What it is, 'neutral status' ? All sort of definitions of states, of institutional arrangements of the state exist and they are well known in the world. But what is 'neutral status' ? I am telling you, 'neutral status' is the other word for word covering the fact that Kosovo and Serbia should be independent states and that is for Serbia completely not acceptable,'' Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said of the proposal, modelled on a 1972 pact that regulated ties between East and West Germany until unification in 1990. Asked how the two sides would fill three days of talks next week, given their unwillingness to budge, Kosovo delegation spokesman Skender Hyseni told reporters they will need to be creative to find ways to exhaust those three days. Hyseni accused Serbia of wanting to drag on the whole process of negotiations. ''There is a clear intention on the part of Serbia to drag this process until hell freezes. Kosovo is not ready to wait so long. As far as Kosovo is concerned, 10th of December is the end of of the negotiations and soon after that, Kosovo will decide together with key partners in the international community about the very next steps that will be will be sort of taken soon after the 10th of december,'' Hyseni said. Kosovo's president said before the talks his government would coordinate its push for independence with the United States and the European Union, and wanted to launch the move days after the December deadline for mediation to end. EU foreign ministers urged Serb and Kosovo Albanian leaders on Monday to redouble efforts to seek a compromise in last-ditch negotiations launched after Serb ally Russia blocked a U.N.-sponsored plan putting Kosovo on the road to independence. But, in a sign that EU capitals are increasingly pessimistic about a deal, several ministers stressed that Kosovo Albanians should coordinate any subsequent independence moves with international allies to avoid destabilising the region. Former guerrilla Hashim Thaci, expected to become Kosovo prime minister after Saturday's election, said on Tuesday the province's leaders would "do nothing without coordination with our partners in Washington and Brussels". The United States backs Kosovo independence and British Europe Minister Jim Murphy said on Monday that "well over 20" of the bloc's 27 states agreed.

ITN Source | November 21, 2007

Tags:. .construction. .borders. .dec. .russian. .definitions