Majority of Serbs Intend To Stay in Kosovo, U.S. Diplomat Says
12 March 2007
U.N. envoy preparing to send settlement proposal to Security Council
Washington -- Kosovo’s Serbs strongly disagree with a settlement proposal being sent to the U.N. Security Council, but a senior U.S. diplomat says most Serbs now living in Kosovo intend to stay there and seek a future of peace and prosperity.
Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, visited Kosovo and Serbia in early March. Speaking to reporters March 12 at the State Department, Fried said overwhelming majorities throughout the region seek a peaceful settlement that can pave the way for entry into the European Union.
U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland, is concluding 14 months of talks with a Kosovo settlement proposal he expects to deliver to the United Nations in the weeks ahead. On February 2, Ahtisaari delivered a draft proposal to the governments in Belgrade, Serbia, and Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, saying that Kosovo would govern itself democratically and be allowed to make international agreements while remaining, at least temporarily, under international supervision. (See related article.)
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when a NATO-led military campaign drove out Yugoslav Serb forces after escalating violence and human-rights abuses. The United States continues to deploy 1,700 troops as part of the 17,000 troops in the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR). International diplomats are deeply concerned with preventing violence in the months ahead as the United Nations and NATO oversee the proposed creation of an internationally supervised Kosovo that retains its historic cultural ties to Serbia. Ethnic Serbs make up less than 10 percent of Kosovo’s 2 million people, but Serbs have strong cultural ties to the area, which is central to Serbia’s history. Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90 percent of Kosovo’s population.
Rosemary DiCarlo, U.S. deputy assistant secretary for south-central Europe, told reporters that, following his March 10 talks in Vienna, Austria, “Ahtisaari plans to put some revisions to his proposal in the coming days” before submitting it to the U.N. secretary-general. DiCarlo attended the March 10 Vienna meeting as an observer.
Belgrade and Pristina were unable to agree on a final diplomatic status for Kosovo, but, DiCarlo stressed to reporters that the two parties do agree on most of the provisions in Ahtisaari’s proposal. “Even if the two sides could not come to an agreement on an outcome, and if there are some outstanding issues, about 80 percent of that document was agreed to by both Belgrade and Pristina,” DiCarlo said.
Fried traveled to Serbia and throughout Kosovo, speaking to government leaders and moderate community leaders. He acknowledged that he did not meet with some hard-line minority leaders who seek to block a settlement.
“My overwhelming impression is, first, that the Kosovo Serbs – who may not like this process, who wish they were in a different situation altogether – are determined for the most part to stay in Kosovo once the status process is completed,” Fried said.
“They want to live in peace and security, but they want to live in Kosovo,” Fried said. “I did not hear the mayors talk about mass exodus. I did not hear threats of violence. I did not hear demands and threats of disruption.”
Kosovo’s Albanian and Serb communities both expressed a strong desire for a continued international presence in Kosovo, Fried said. The people of Kosovo also support strongly the continued presence of the NATO-led Kosovo Force, he said.
“It is clear that the people of Kosovo … do want to live together,” Fried said. “They are apprehensive about each other; there is clearly not a great deal of trust. But there is at least a determination to try to make the Ahtisaari plan work.”
See also Southeast Europe and Balkans.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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