After declaring independence, Kosovo looks to cautious next steps
President Bush hailed the controversial move, as the EU and UN met to form their responses.
from the February 19, 2008 edition
Page 3 of 3
Kosovo Serbs already look to Belgrade for many of their basic needs. The Serbian government provides their pensions, healthcare, and education.
Analysts fear that Serbia will build up its own institutions in Kosovo in coming months, cementing the de facto partition between the Serb-dominated north and the Albanian majority in the south that has existed since the war.
Going against Serbian and Russian convictions, Western diplomats have argued the case of Kosovo is unique and that separatists in other states in Europe and the Balkans will not receive aid and welcome from major powers. "It is incorrect to view this as a precedent and it doesn't serve any purpose to view it as a precedent," said Alejandro Wolff, US deputy permanent representative to the UN.
British diplomats said that UN resolution 1244, signed after the NATO bombing with Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in order to legally remove Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, was not intended to freeze Kosovo's status indefinitely.
"We all agree that 1244 is in place," said Sir John Sawers, British ambassador to the UN, "[But] nothing in 1244 rules out the recognition of an independent Kosovo," adding that 1244 ensured "an interim period, which is over," to be replaced by the UN-sponsored Ahtisaari plan, to be set up by the EU.
In Paris, the daily newspaper Le Monde warned in an editorial that Kosovo's independence could bring instability in the region.
"To avoid this danger, the EU will have to invest, more than it's actually doing now, in the entire region. And in particular Serbia, which must be able to believe in its European future. This policy will be expensive in material and human resources. Europeans must be aware of that."
In Pristina, columnist Baton Haxhiu says much is riding on Europe's attitude. "Whether or not Kosovo opens up and we become European, or we move inward to become more Albanian and Balkan, depends on how welcoming Europe is."
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