With increasing speculation of what special representative Ahtisaari will propose for the status of Kosovo in coming weeks, the rhetoric of what the world should do is raining down in the editorial sections of international new sources.
The exact date of Ahtisaari's recommendation has not yet been decided but Kosovo PM Ceku is "confident" that the proposal will go before the Security Council at the end of February or beginning of March. More and more, there seems to be agreement that Ahtisaari will propose some sort of conditional or supervised independence. Meanwhile, Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns has stated that he believes that the entire status process will be concluded in April.
Former congressman and president of the Albanian American Civic League (which already indicates the position), Joe DioGuardi, writes that the new Secretary-General needs to be strong and that conditional independence is not acceptable. An article by US presidential hopeful Joseph Biden in the Jan 2nd Financial Times garnered attention from the website antiwar.com. Biden had stated that "Opponents to a new Kosovo must be stopped" and Balkan Express goes through his arguments to refute the claims borrowing lines from Macbeth that "It is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/Signifying nothing".
Axis Information & Analysis breaks down the upcoming Serbian elections, citing polls that give a good indication of what the results may be following 21 Jan. The analysis begs the question of whether Serbia will turn to Kosovo or towards Europe following the elections. From the Financial Times, MSN states "Radical tide could spell disaster for Serbia" and goes on to examine just how radical the radicals are in Serbia. You might be surprised at what is found :)
Should Kosovo be granted independence, neighboring countries with Serbian populations are welcoming those that may want to leave. Bosnian lawmaker Sadik Ahmetovic said that a number of Serbs could be moved from Kosovo to Bosnia following a deal between Belgrade and Banja Luka.
