Interesting Articles and Some News Updates

As usual, I came across a couple interesting articles in my daily research on Kosovo :) One article from a Philadelphia publication explains that Kosovo is more of a Russia-Germany stand-off than a Russia-US issue. The article argues that Germany and Russia are fighting to exert their influence on Europe. I can't attest to how true the information is but it is an interesting take on the situation in Kosovo and I wanted to share the article :)
The EU may be considering proposing that Kosovo and Serbia form a confederation that would last several years before Kosovo became independence. The proposal is thought to be an alternative that may be put forth as a compromise to satisfy both Belgrade and Pristina. Ideally, it may follow a similar model to the loose ties between Serbia and Montenegro when they were considered one country. Under the possible proposal, Kosovo would have equal rights as Serbia but Kosovo would have the opportunity to self-determination through a new constitution. It's an interesting alternative and I would actually like to see it proposed to see how the parties would react.

An opinion piece in Indonesia's Jakarta Post wonders if the stand-off over Kosovo will result in WWIII with Kosovo unilaterally declaring independence and Serb ultra-nationalists going to war with Russia as an ally (as Russia is upset at the West, particularly the US who has said they would recognize if Kosovo declared...but I do believe those declarations were kind of retracted at later dates.)

As I was traveling, I forgot to pass on information about the high-profile meeting between Kosovo leaders and US Secretary of State Connie Rice. The leaders of Kosovo promised to not declare independence unilaterally without consulting its allies.The US reaffirmed its support for Kosovo's independence during the meeting and promised to continue to push for quick resolution within the next months, possibly before the conclusion of the 120-days of negotiations.

Also due to my travels, I missed news about a bus being hit by a booby trap on 20 July. The bus was transporting 10 Albanians in northern Kosovo and supposedly drove over a rope that was attached to a grenade. No one was injured in the blast and KPS is investigating the incident.

Wildfires are continuing to ravage Kosovo. Some 100,000 hectares have been burned in Kosovo over the past few months. KFOR has stepped in to assist in battling the fires.

Serbia Proposes Rules for Negotiations

Serbia has proposed a new set of rules to govern the four-month round of negotiations with Pristina under the supervision of the Contact Group. Belgrade has stated that it was ready to give concessions to Kosovo on joining international organizations such as the IMF and World Bank while still maintaining that Kosovo should remain a part of Serbia. However, Kosovo's President Fatmir Sedjiu has declared that he will not accept anything other than independence. He announced that the negotiations would center around issues of secession, missing persons, and freedom of movement.
Meanwhile, some international peacekeepers from Slovakia have been busted trying to smuggle cigarettes and alcohol from Kosovo after serving in Kosovo. Around 450 liters of alcohol and 320 boxes of cigarettes were found by Hungarian officials in a truck that was transporting Slovak soldier's luggage back to their home country following the conclusion of their peacekeeping duties in Kosovo.

Authorities in Kosovo have discovered an illegal water bottling plant in Kosovo. The plant was discovered producing the Serbian brand "Heba" without a license and without a license to conduct business. The water is currently being tested for quality and 3000 liters of water has been seized. Also, authorities expect that the tender for Kosovo's "C" power plant will be announced later this year. It is expected that the construction of the billion dollar plant will make Kosovo a big player in Southeast Europe's energy market. It will be a big change from the current situation where Kosovo must pay to import power during the winter to meet the demand.

KPS has brought in a good sized haul during a recent operation targeting arms smugglers and organized crime in Pristina and Podujevo. Approximately 500 guns and 2000 rounds of ammunition were seized during raids and two people were arrested. A KPS spokesperson is quoted as saying that most of the weapons came from Macedonia.

UN Fails to Pass Kosovo Resolution

With Russia remaining firm that they would not approve a resolution that Serbia did not agree to, the issue of Kosovo's status is temporarily leaving the UN Security Council. Negotiations will take place under the supervision of the Contact Group, which Russia is a member but has no veto power. Both Serbia and Russia seemed pleased that the resolution failed and are looking forward to continuing the negotiations. Serbia and more recently Russia questioned the UN Envoy for Kosovo Ahtisaari on whether or not he was truly unbiased.
With the UN failing to push through a resolution, Kosovo's leaders are looking to make a unilateral declaration. The target date set by Kosovo PM Agim Ceku is November 28th, which strangely also happens to be the day neighboring Albania celebrated their independence. Hmmm?!

And please forgive any obvious formatting or spelling errors over the next several weeks as I am home in the US and borrowing computers, I am actually working on the code rather than using a webpage editor. There also won't be any real good personal Kosovo stories but you can check out my travel pages as I am doing quite a bit of jet setting around!

Kosovo to go-ahead with autumn elections

Faced with growing discomfort at the repeated extension of terms, top Kosovo officials have decided to hold elections this fall whether or not the status is decided.  The politicians were elected in 2002 on four year terms but the 2006 election was postponed by the UN thinking that the status would be resolved.  The deadline for the postponement was June 2007 and as that date has passed and opposition leaders are calling for a vote and questioning the legitimacy of the current government, Kosovo leaders are going to present the idea of an election to SRSG Ruecker for approval. 
It comes as no great surprise that Russia has rejected the resolution introduced by the EU/US.  Russia continues to oppose the resolution because the text still holds a hidden path to independence.  Now the big question is, what's next?  The resolution spells out that the negotiations would be carried out by diplomats of the Contact Group (US, UK, Italy, Germany, France, Russia) and the EU.  However, South Africa's ambassador questioned how the EU could negotiate fairly as it has been a strong supporter of independence.  The Security Council is due to debate Kosovo behind closed doors on Thursday.

MTCowgirl's Interesting News Articles...

• Chinese human trafficking ring broken up in Kosovo, eight arrested
• Summer of Discontent by Antiwar.com
• Kosovo Example Spurs Hope for Transdniestria, Nagorno Karabakh
• Hiding Genocide in Kosovo, a new book is available from American Council for Kosovo
• General Must Not Lie, what really happened in Racak???
• Serbia charges Kosovo Albanian with war crimes

The Blah, Blah Continues

The politicians are continuing to blah, blah about Kosovo...honestly at times I myself feel frustrated that my life is up in the air because of the Security Council so I can only imagine how the Kosovo Albanians feel!  My mom has given up asking me if/when I'm coming home because I never know what to tell her now-a-days.  I go through phases of leaving-Kosovo-4-months, staying-Kosovo-next-summer, no-leave-Kosovo-end-of-year, staying-in-Kosovo, leaving-Kosovo, wait-I'll-stay-there's-no-resolution, no-there'll-be-a-resolution-and-I-go...get the idea???
The US and EU have formally introduced their third attempt at a resolution to the Security Council in an apparent attempt to gauge the mood and possibly test the Russian threat of a veto.  By formally introducing the resolution, it means that there can be a vote within the next 24 hours or possibly not at all.  Diplomats are said to be waiting for Russia's reaction before deciding what to do.

There are rumors on both sides that the Kosovo status will leave the UN.  Several different sources say that the EU is drifting towards solution outside the UN and a couple others say the Kosovo debate will not leave the UN.  There is also discussion that the Contact Group may take over the issue of Kosovo's status.  The idea of the Contact Group taking over would be to allow negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade to continue in the hopes that they could reach a settlement...but that idea is likely to fail as both sides remain diametrically opposed.

Grand Pristina Plans

A group in Pristina is making grand plans following Kosovo's independence.  The website Pirgu.org does not really identify the organization but what I gather is that the group along with the Pristina municipality and Kosovo government will build what is called the Tower of Independence near the Skenderbeq statue that resides next to the government building.  The statue combines ideas from famous landmarks around the US and Britain such as Big Ben and Times Square.  The organizers believe the tower will become a tourist destination in Kosovo as well as provided large companies with an opportunity to advertise to the masses.  Planned to be 20 meters high, the tower will feature a digital clock that counts the time from Kosovo's declaration of independence.

It appears that the UN Security Council has reached an impasse and is deadlocked on Kosovo following closed door consultations yesterday where Russia again rejected attempts by Western countries to get a resolution to vote.  Western diplomats now are trying to figure out whether or not they want to press the issue of a vote but with Russia's ambassador commenting on the possibility of the measure passing by saying "the chances of that are zero" things are not looking good.

Stepping up pressure on the international community, Kosovo's president Fatmir Sedijiu has stated that Kosovo is prepared to take "alternative steps" while opposition leader Hashim Thaci is quoted as saying the "role Security Council has weakened".

MTCowgirl's Interesting News Articles....Now don't be writing to me and saying that you don't like what I've posted.  These are real news articles published in international news media outlets and I'm just posting them for everyone to read and form their own opinion!!!

• Editorial titled Kosovo conundrum requires new thinking
• Julia Gorin Letters from the (Kosovo) Front -- While I do agree with some of what the author states from time to time, sometimes the author comes off a bit too strongly.,,
• Italian magazine focuses on Kosovo with pretty pessimistic views...I didn't see the article (and it's in Italian!) but here's a link to Limes Plus
• Putin: From US Ally to Global Tyrant...while the article is not about Kosovo, I think it has some bearing on the situation here :)  Overall I found it a very good read.

Night of Yowling Cats & Dog Fights

Whew, is was a good prelude to a Monday morning as cats yowled and dogs fought outside on the street last night.  So far I have not heard any evidence of the extermination campaign by the local government.  It's possible that maybe they are not working on the problem in Pristina but out in other municipalities.  There seems to be a few new litters of each species running around the neighborhood.  The little puppies and kittens are adorable but one can't help wonder what will happen to them over time.  The neighborhood kids seem to like animals now and on the weekends I seem to gather a fan club of around 10 kids who like to pet Smokey while he's trying to mark his territory on all the poles and bushes on the street.  I think I've done good in training him that trash cans and car tires are off limits though :)
I am going to be leaving on Friday for a month long vacation.  With the possibility that the mission will be closing down, a lot of UN staff, myself included, are finally trying to use up the leave we've accumulated over the years.  I won't be resting on my laurels though as I bounce from state to state visiting family who all want to see me.  I will however take a week of me-time and join a good friend in Tobago for a week of scuba diving.  You can bet that I'll be taking lots of pictures under and above water!

There was a little bit of interesting news over the weekend.  One thing that happened that grabbed my attention is a shoot-out between unknown suspects and the local police near the north western boundary.  Villagers reported seeing men in Serbian-style uniforms with weapons.  When KPS showed up to investigate, they came under fire.  No injuries were reported and the suspects escaped.  As a response, KPS has stepped up patrols in the area.

The next tidbit of news really grabbed my attention because it stuck me as a bit silly.  Veton Surroi, an opposition party leader and member of the Unity Team, has urged the West to ignore Russia and allow Kosovo to become independent.  Part of the argument is that Russia should not have a say in European affairs...but then one could easily turn around as say, well neither does the US!  There are also reports that maybe the US will bypass the UN regarding Kosovo's independence but that's likely to cause major waves in the international swimming pool.

Kosovo PM Agim Ceku says that he is ready to declare independence and expects some sort of go-ahead during a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that is scheduled to take place next week.  One interesting quote that I came across from Ceku is "If you start to draw borders in the Balkans where do you stop?" but then I would ask, isn't declaring Kosovo an independent state basically drawing in a new border where one didn't exist before???

It's kind of amusing that as I read over the news about Kosovo and the frustrations of the Kosovo Albanians, I look to my daily desk calendar and see Dilbert's boss saying "You are not allowed to lie, but I expect plenty of omissions, misdirections, exaggerations, unjustified optimism, lost documents, unclear explanations, gray areas and tactical ignorance.  Oh, an say that we have other offers."

MTCowgirl's Interesting News Articles...

• An editorial in The Progress Report asks Independence for Kosovo? Why?
• The UN prepares plan for unforeseen possibilities
• The Boston Globe looks at A tradeoff for peace in Kosovo
• EU wants UN Resolution for Kosovo