'Breakthough' EU deal greeted by tomato-throwers in Kosovo

Vetevendosje sticker on a traffic light in Kosovo - the party won 12 percent in recent elections and has a following among young people (festimb)

Πηγή: EUobserver

By EKREM KRASNIQI AND ANDREW RETTMAN

05.09.11

Kosovo negotiator Edita Tahiri was greeted by tomato-pelting protesters and riot police at Pristina airport on Saturday (3 September) after coming back from Brussels with an EU-brokered deal on customs stamps.

The unrest forced the deputy prime minister to hide in the airport terminal for over one hour as officers from the Rosu special police unit clashed with activists from the Vetevendosje opposition party outside. The police made 34 arrests and beat people, including two Vetevendosje MPs, with some requiring medical treatment from ambulances on the scene.

The opposition party attacked Tahiri because it believes the EU and the Kosovo government of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci are preparing to give ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo some form of autonomy in future.

The customs deal is to see Serbia accept Kosovo goods which are labelled with a newly-designed stamp that says 'Customs of Kosovo' but which does not display any state insignia, such as a flag or a coat of arms, according to Kosovo's leading daily, Koha Ditore.


EU diplomat Robert Cooper on Friday in Brussels welcomed the agreement.

"From quite soon, because there still a little bit of process that has to take place before this can be implemented, but quite soon, all Kosovo goods will be able to travel across the border ... That's good for regional trade, that makes the region look more European," Cooper said.

Tahiri called it a "breakthrough".

For his part, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Goran Bogdanovic, on Sunday told press that Kosovo customs officials will still not be allowed to man crossing points in northern Kosovo and that customs income based on the new stamps will not be allowed to go to Pristina.

Radenko Nedeljkovic, the head of Serb enclave's local authorities, put it more bluntly. "I am sure that there will be no Albanian customs officers at the Brnjak and Jarinje crossings. As far as the stamp is concerned, it can be used south of the Ibar River," he said, referring to the river that separates the enclave from Pristina-controlled Kosovo.

The Brussels talks come after Rosu police in July seized control of the border crossing points by force. The operation led to violent reprisals by local Serbs in which one ethnic Albanian policeman was shot in the head and killed. The crossing points are currently under the control of Nato soldiers.

The talks also come after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Serbia it will not get EU candidate status in autumn unless it stops support for the Kosovo enclave.

On the flip side of the Vetevendosje concerns, the Serb opposition sees the customs deal as a prelude to giving up control of north Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Cooper's reference to "a little bit of process" masks potentially important problems in terms of implementation - such as how to formulate the status of Kosovo in the documents of origin which need to be attached to any export shipments.

Serbia, Kosovo and the EU: Sinking the flagship

Πηγή: The Economist
Sep 3 2011

ANGELA MERKEL, the German chancellor, has just holed Serbia’s flagship foreign policy below the water line. For the past year, the country’s leaders have been doing everything they can to win candidate status to the European Union in December, with the aim of going to the country in the spring brandishing their achievement. To that end, they secured the arrest of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general wanted by the UN’s Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal. They have passed EU-compatible laws and entered into an EU-sponsored dialogue with the leaders of Kosovo, a former province that declared independence in 2008. So far, so good.

Then along came Mrs Merkel. Visiting Belgrade on August 23rd, the chancellor said Germany still wants Serbia in the EU, but to become a candidate it should first “abolish parallel structures”—the term for Serbian institutions in Kosovo. This blew apart an artful piece of Serbian ambiguity.

About two-thirds of Kosovo’s Serbs live in enclaves in the centre and south of the country. They have begun to work with authorities in the capital, Pristina. But cross the bridge in the divided city of Mitrovica, into the Serbian north, and it is a different story. Here and in the rest of north Kosovo, which is home to about 40,000 Serbs and only a few Albanians, you might as well be in Serbia. Schools, utilities and municipalities are part of Serbia’s system, not Kosovo’s. Since Serbia’s government discreetly signals that its eventual aim is Kosovo’s partition—keeping the north in exchange for recognising the independence of the rest—dismantling these institutions would be to admit that it cannot achieve its aim. That is exactly what Mrs Merkel wants. But Boris Tadic, Serbia’s president, has consistently said Serbs do not need to choose between Kosovo and the EU. That he has been proved wrong is no surprise. The surprise is Mrs Merkel’s timing.

Her remark shocked those in Brussels who have been preparing for Serbia’s candidacy. “It is as bad as it looks,” says one. Unless the government has a last trick up its sleeve, then the most likely winners will be nationalist and populist parties—not what the EU wants. Still, Mrs Merkel has made one thing clear. In reality, Serbia—which now has only a toehold in Kosovo—can either join the EU without Kosovo, or not join the EU without Kosovo.

Kosovo border violence on UN Security Council agenda

Peacekeepers had to be deployed to secure the border area in July

Πηγή: BBC
30 August 2011

Recent deadly violence in Kosovo is set to be on the agenda as the UN Security Council meets in New York, but there are also new hopes for peace.
Fighting flared in July when Kosovo's authorities sent police into the north, the territory's biggest Serb area.

Serbia, which refuses to accept an independent Kosovo, wants the Security Council to condemn the action.

Elsewhere, Serbia's president said his country recognised the EU's law and justice mission (Eulex) in Kosovo.

Boris Tadic said the issue had arisen at talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she visited Belgrade last week.

"In our talks in Belgrade, Angela Merkel's view was that Serbia should secure functioning of the Eulex in all Kosovo and that Belgrade should return to talks with Pristina," he told reporters on Monday after meeting Czech President Vaclav Klaus in Prague.

"Both demands are totally acceptable for Serbia. We want dialogue as we have initiated it and we have insisted on it, and we did our best to bring Eulex to Kosovo and help it perform its mission in a way that would be neutral in relation with its [Kosovo's] status."

Officials in Serbia, a prospective member of the EU, have in the past stressed the role of the UN in administering Kosovo until the question of its status is resolved.Expectations high

The Security Council is meeting on Tuesday to hear a quarterly update on the situation in Kosovo from the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.

But this session is the most eagerly awaited for some time as it comes during a period of heightened ethnic tension in the territory, BBC Balkans correspondent Mark Lowen reports from Belgrade.

When the Kosovan government sent police into the north to take control of border posts with Serbia that had not previously been under its authority, the Serb population in the north rebelled, leading to clashes in which a policeman died.

The Nato force in Kosovo intervened, mediating between the two sides.

Now Russia, a staunch ally of Serbia, has prepared a draft document to be presented to the Security Council condemning what it calls the use of force by the Kosovan government and calling for international institutions in Kosovo, such as Nato, to remain impartial.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who will attend the UN session, says he hopes the majority of countries will support the document.

Kosovo's Western backers, including the US, France and Britain, are likely to put up a stiff response but all sides will call for calm, says our correspondent.

Three and a half years since Kosovo declared independence, it is an issue that still polarises opinion, he adds.

Less than half of UN members have recognised the split and with ethnic tension remaining, it is far from being resolved, our correspondents says.

EU warns against growing tensions in Kosovo

Serbs set fire to a border crossing in northern Kosovo after Kosovo police captured it in a police operation [Reuters]

Πηγή: Aljazeera

28 Jul 2011 06:11

Concerns grow after ethnic Serbs angry with a Kosovo police operation set fire to a border crossing post in the north.

The European Union has issued a stern warning against a deadly flare-up of violence in Kosovo's Serb-run north, reports Reuters news agency.

Ethnic Serbs set fire to a border crossing post in northern Kosovo on Wednesday, after Kosovo's government regained control of the post and a second one late on Monday night.

Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, said in a statement: "I strongly condemn the violence that has taken place in northern Kosovo. These latest developments are unacceptable".

She said that it is the responsibility of the governments in Belgrade and Pristina to restore peace between the two nations.

Armed Kosovo police units crossed into the ethnic Serb-dominated north on Monday in an effort to station troops in a region that takes its orders from Serbia, news agencies said.

A Kosovo police officer was shot in the head and died on Tuesday and four others were injured during an exchange of gunfire between police and local Serbs opposing Kosovo's efforts to take control of its border posts.

The same border post was burned down in 2008 by local Serbs after Kosovo declared independence.

Serbian explanation

The Reuters news agency quoted Serbian negotiators for Kosovo, who are attempting to negotiate a solution to the violence with Kosovo officials and NATO peacekeepers, as saying that Wednesday's fire was set by criminals trying to undermine talks.

Borko Stefanovic, the chief Serb negotiator, said: "This violent act, an act of criminals and extremists, represents a clear attempt to undermine the process we are pursuing and the attempts to resolve all the issues in a peaceful manner.

"This greatly aggravates the position of Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija and is not contributing to the resolution of the problems which had brought us here in the past couple of days."

Oliver Ivanovic, Serbia's state secretary for Kosovo, also voiced concerns about further violence.

"One act of violence produces more violence. I am afraid we are entering a spiral of violence," he said.

Armed ethnic Serbs fired at NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo on Wednesday in the north.

"The situation deteriorated at the customs post Jarinje and it was confirmed that an act of arson was committed against that position," NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR) said in a statement.

"There have also been confirmed reports of shots fired at KFOR personnel in the vicinity."

The NATO statement did not say whether anyone was injured in the attack or whether KFOR troops returned fire, but said reinforcements had been sent to the border.

Raid defended

Hashim Thaci, the prime minister of Kosovo, justified the police operation on Tuesday, saying it was a "concrete step in establishing the rule of law" in the north.

He said co-operation with the international community was important, but that "the constitution and the sovereignty of my country are sacred for myself and for my countrymen and go beyond any partnership or loyalty".

At a news briefing, Maja Kocijancic, an EU commission spokesperson described Kosovo's unilateral action in the region as "not helpful".

"It was not done in consultation neither with the European Union nor the international community and we do not approve it," she said.

In Washington, President Barack Obama echoed Kocijancic's sentiments, but stopped short of condemning Kosovo.

Though Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008, Serbia does not recognise its independence.

To undermine Kosovo's claim of sovereignty, Serbia has stationed its troops in the northern region and enforced a boycott against goods from Kosovo.

Kosovo wants to assert control over the north and enforce a similar ban on Serbian goods.