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Serbs Mull Over Partitioning Kosovo
16 August 2007 Officials won’t say so publicly, but the idea of cutting Kosovo in two could offer a way out of deadlock.
By Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade
The start of a new round of talks on the future of Kosovo has opened up an avenue that Belgrade has mulled over since the outset – partitioning the territory. Although everyone involved officially denies it is an option, there are more and more voices suggesting it might just be the right way out.
The first visit of the “troika” - the international negotiating team of envoys from the United States, Russia and the European Union - to Belgrade and Pristina last week achieved little, as the two sides in the dispute simply reinforced their respective positions. Serbia offered everything but independence, while the Kosovo Albanians said they would have nothing else.
The two international key players also remained entrenched in their conflicting positions - the Americans insist complete independence is the only viable outcome, and the Russians say any final decision must have Belgrade's consent.
But an important message was passed on during the visit. At a press conference after a meeting between ethnic Albanian politicians and the troika, the EU envoy Wolfgang Ischinger, said all options would be considered.
Asked whether that included splitting the territory in two, Ischinger replied, "If they want that."
The remark angered both Pristina and Belgrade.
Kosovo’s president Fatmir Sejdiu has said the Albanians would pull out of the negotiating process if partition was put on the table. “We will not allow anyone to impose such a solution,” Sejdiu said, in comments quoted by Serbian media.
In Belgrade, Vuko Antonijevic, the head of the government’s Coordinating Body for Kosovo, told reporters that “for Serbia, such a proposal of partition is not acceptable for the moment”.
He did, however, keep the door a little open when he added that he would like “perhaps to see two separate entities in Kosovo and to see Albanians trying to run their entity”.
Another government official, Education Minister Zoran Loncar, was more robust in his rejection, asking, “Why should we partition something that is ours?”
The idea of splitting Kosovo is not new, and has been around for more than a decade. In 1992, the influential Serbian writer and politician Dobrica Cosic and some ethnic Albanian intellectuals mulled partition as a project. However, as a series of wars were tearing the former Yugoslavia apart at the time, the idea faded away.
“The idea must be resurrected,” a Serbian government official said on condition of anonymity. “Although our government appears defiant on the surface, many people are realistic and have already come to understand that partition is the only viable option. It is such a pity that wars have postponed it for so long.”
In 1998, an insurgency broke out in Kosovo leading to bloodshed on the ground and, in 1999, the NATO bombing that ended the Serbian crackdown on the Albanian rebels. The province has since been administered by the United Nations and protected by NATO peacekeepers.
UN-brokered talks about the province’s future collapsed earlier this year. Following Russian opposition at the UN Security Council, a plan drafted by Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari that envisioned independent status supervised by the international community was discarded.
After this, the job of conducting fresh talks went to the Contact Group – the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia – on whose behalf the troika is now working.
The proponents of partition in Belgrade argue that northern Kosovo can be seen in many ways as a natural extension of Serbia. The three municipalities of Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan, plus the northern half of Mitrovica, are overwhelmingly Serbian with a total population of more than 40,000. The area adjoins Serbia geographically, and enjoys close financial, administrative, infrastructural and cultural ties with Belgrade.
Serbia’s Academy of Sciences, which frequently plays an important role in formulating national strategy, recently published two books on Kosovo which contain prominent articles concerning the issue of partition.
One of the articles set out a possible scenario where Serbs would leave en masse from the enclaves where they live in central and southern Kosovo, and included maps of how partition might look.
Zoran Zivkovic, a former Serbian prime minister, says he sees partition as “the least worst solution”.
“Further talks are meaningless unless they offer something new and negotiable. Unless they [the talks] result in a no-win or win-win situation, partition might be that something new,” he told Balkan Insight.
According to a Belgrade-based European diplomat who asked to remain anonymous, another solution “that might sound like a compromise to both sides” could be a hybrid between partition and independence.
“It could be something along the lines of: Kosovo will have a seat as an observer within the UN, thus having the right to participate in General Assembly sessions; independent access to international financial bodies; and its territory could comprise two entities, Serbian and Albanian,” he said.
The diplomat noted that such an option is “more academic than real, but nevertheless it is a compromise”.
“Such a Kosovo will have virtual independence and international supervision. Serbia would have no influence on its Albanian part, and a limited upper hand in the Serbian entity,” he explained.
However, many fear that talk of partition could spark Albanian attacks on the Serb enclaves scattered across Kosovo, in areas that would lie south of any new boundary line.
Momcilo Trajovic, a moderate Kosovo Serb politician, believes supervised independence would be a better solution than partition. “I know I’ll sound like a heretic, but I would rather opt for supervised independence than for partition," he told Balkan Insight.
He explained that internationally monitored independence would allow Serbia “to regain its influence” over Kosovo when it joins the EU.
Trajkovic heads the Kosovo Serbian Resistance Movement, which advocates for the rights of Serbs living in enclaves.
Another moderate Kosovo Serb, Oliver Ivanovic from the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica, is very wary of the idea of partition.<
“I do not exclude it as a solution, since one of the superpowers may opt for it as a so-called compromise, even though it could jeopardise the Serbs living in enclaves,” Ivanovic told Balkan Insight.
He warns that partitioning Kosovo will “not only fail to resolve problems [there], it could become a recipe for resolving ethnic problems elsewhere”
A separate, but related worry is that partition in Kosovo could reignite separatist sentiment – even armed insurgency - among ethnic Albanians in the restive Presevo Valley of southern Serbia, where many see their future as lying in an independent, Albanian-run Kosovo.
“The partition should never include Serbia’s south, where ethnic Albanians are participating in Serbian political life and where their rights are protected,” said Zivkovic.
Aleksandar Vasovic is BIRN Serbia editor. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.
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Comments:
mr
Posted: 2007-09-21 13:51:19,
you do mention on this report that dobrica cosic (former yugoslav president) has been talking about it, but not since 1992 but since 184 when he was a member of the academy of science and arts of serbia, and wrote to many about it including noam chomsky, i would like to know those prominent albanians (eagle-man) who did think on the same line like president cosic, as you do not mention their names (i would be most gratefull if you can do that for me). on the other hand we all know the serbian way of real-politics (despotism is what their govenment still pursues, same as in bosnia, i will explain why), they create as today (and especialy in bosnia, when they took as much land as possible and then be "genourus" and give some back) a make belive system of as if though there is somethink to deffend as it's theirs, and issue conflicting declarations, whith the possible deal being the first (just to test the rediness of the other part) and then someone from the same government cabinet says no we wont except that. if there would be parttitioning of kosovo then one has to remind him/her-self of the albanian question, meaning the southern part of serbia would be on the table to start with on any deal on parttitioning, (now do not forget that northern tip of kosovo has it's prowes against the shouthern tip of serbia, and would mean creating hegomonous states, well the serbs allready have with the january constitution, where it states that serbia is the country of the serbs not of it's citisens as it did state in even milosevic's time), then the albanians in the fyrom, the chameria (northern greece), and western part of newly created state of montenegro, up to cetinje would be on the table. on the other hand the serbian government will insist in destabilasing the boasnia and herc. but that country is allready in mess becouse of it's dayton agreement, and all they could do there is make the muslims of that country declare some sort of principality or even a state (but they do not even have their own borders) or to be incorporated in-to croatia or serbia or stay alone with the federation (muslims and croat's) transformed in-to a new state, last but not least the hungarian question and the sandak question (integral part of serbia), am i getting to the point or do i have to continue by adding that it's allmost a century from the last time that the borbers of baalken have been unjustyfiably drown and this would mean a new london style conference of 1913, wich would mostly be in favour of the albanians in general. thank you for reading this and hope to hear from you soon. yours truly premton s. p.s. i do research on ma history and politics
thank you for the consent
Posted: 2007-09-24 14:46:20,
this view of the order has is (and hope and praying for the better is always good but actually acting and working towards the better tomorrow is more fruitful) marginalized, and i only hope that the future will let as speak freely, as time is a great healer. they should talk (after the people have had their choice delivered and listened too)for decades but the threats coming from the government officials of Serbia and para's they allow to operate within their state is utterly unacceptable as that proves that the government in Serbia is using them as leaver's on negotiating table without even mentioning that. thank you for your time yours truly s.premton