Monday, 21 November 2005Finnish diplomat Marti Ahtisaari is due to arrive in Pristina on Monday to open the first phase of talks on the future of Serbia's breakaway province Kosovo.
Ahtisaari was appointed by the United Nations to mediate the talks, aimed at resolving the political limbo that Kosovo has been in since the arrival of a UN administration in mid-1999.
That deal was also brokered by Ahtisaari. The Albanian majority in Kosovo are pushing for quick independence, while Serbia is offering autonomy but insisting on sovereignty over the territory it regards as the cradle of its spirituality and statehood.
The talks are expected to be closely followed by the Contact Group of big powers - United States, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and Italy, as well as the European Union.
In the initial, "fact-finding" phase, Ahtisaari was expected to shuttle between Belgrade and Pristina, with stops in other countries affected by the Kosovo crisis - Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro.
The parliament in Pristina last week adopted a platform for the talks, "affirming the desire of the people for an independent and sovereign Kosovo".
The Serbian assembly was scheduled to meet Monday to pass its own Kosovo resolution. It was expected to insist on international principles of inviolability of borders and sovereignty.
Kosovo, where the Albanians make up around 90 per cent of the population, was the scene of ethnic violence in 1999 which was ended when NATO expelled Belgrade's security forces from the province.
Afterwards, there was no high-level direct contact between Belgrade and transitional authorities in Pristina. Relations remained limited to talks on crucial technical issues.
Meanwhile, despite the U.N. and NATO police and peacekeepers, ethnic tensions have persisted in Kosovo, with the minority Serbs on the receiving end of intimidation and outright violence.
While Albanian leaders promise that the situation would improve once they are left in charge, Serbs remain mistrustful, fearing that they would be forced to join more than 100,000 of their compatriots who have fled Kosovo since 1999.
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Monday, 21 November 2005
Macedonian Information Agency-MIA
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