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26 October 2007   As Kosovo status negotiations remain deadlocked, support grows for a unilateral declaration of independence.

By Krenar Gashi in Pristina

Rexhep Selimi sits relaxed in his restaurant in Pristina. “Kosovo should declare independence,” he says firmly, taking another sip of coffee from a tiny cup.

Rexhep Selimi

A former general with the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, Selimi was also Kosovo’s first minister of the interior, in 1999, as a member of the self-proclaimed provisional government that was not recognised by the international authorities.

“This is the first time since then, that I honestly believe we should declare independence unilaterally - after December 10,” he says.

The number of Kosovo Albanians who share Selimi’s opinion is rising. Most Kosovars believe that December 10, the deadline set by the international community for concluding the current phase of negotiations over Kosovo’s political status, must bring independence for the disputed territory, one way or another.

There is a general preoccupation about what will happen after this date. Nowhere is this more apparent than among students. At the student dormitories of the University of Pristina you can hardly find a place to sit in the TV room during the main evening news.

The news is followed by endless discussion, in the dormitories or in cafes around the university.

“We are all concerned about the status issue,” says Besim Ramadani, a student of literature. “We’ve waited enough. Now we need to be independent, we need to have an identity.”

Ramadani falls into the more radical strand of opinion and believes that independence should have been proclaimed before the second phase of 120 days of negotiation was launched in August.

“The [Kosovo] assembly should have declared independence when they decided to support Ahtisaari’s plan. They shouldn’t just support it, but also declare independence based on that proposal and start implementing it,” he says.

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari was tasked by the UN to draft a proposal for Kosovo’s final status after the first stage of internationally mediated negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade ended unsuccessfully in the beginning of 2007.

The proposal was published in February and recommends internationally-supervised independence for Kosovo. However, due to Russian objections it was not endorsed by the UN Security Council. As a result, a new phase of negotiations with mediation by a “troika”, made up of the US, the EU and Russia, was launched.

Rexhep Selimi believes Kosovo acted correctly by not taking unilateral steps before.

“Since 1999 there have been many initiatives to declare independence unilaterally and I was always there to oppose and to criticise them. But now I think that we [Kosovo Albanians] have fulfilled our duties,” Selimi says. He believes the current negotiations will not deliver anything new, and that Kosovo’s assembly should take the issue into its own hands.

“Kosovo’s status is nowadays one of the three most important global issues. We are at the top of the global agenda, being a topic of discussion between Bush and Putin, in the Security Council and at every high-profile diplomatic meeting,” Selimi remarks, adding that the issue must be resolved soon after the December deadline.

Petrit Nimani, head of the Albanian Students’ Union, USSH agrees. Nimani, a 23-year-old student of political science, recalls that his union organised a protest on October 10 and is preparing for a bigger demonstration, beginning on December 10, against delays to Kosovo’s independence.

Among other things, Nimani points out that the failure to resolve Kosovo’s status has a direct negative impact on the student body. Kosovo students, for example, cannot join international student organisations or obtain international students cards.

“We will organise a protest that will begin on December 10 and that will be continuous,” he says. “We expect about 50,000 people to take part and we aim to paralyse the institutional life of Kosovo until a concrete step towards independence is taken. If not from the UN Security Council or the international community, we will at least demand that our parliament declares independence,” he concludes.

Selimi, who understands the students’ concerns, says that “independence is not only a political request of Kosovo anymore; it is a practical need of all Kosovars.” For this reason, Selmi adds, “citizens might use practical means if independence is endangered.”

While many believe that unilateral steps should be taken, Kosovo politicians were until recently divided over this question. The Unity Team, a five-member negotiating body made up of senior politicians and mandated to deal with status-related issues, was unable to reach internal agreement on the question of a unilateral declaration.

President Fatmir Sejdiu and the head of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Hashim Thaci, declined to speak about unilateral steps. But Prime Minister Agim Ceku and the head of the reformist ORA party, Veton Surroi, spoke of this as an option.

“We don’t want anybody to be surprised by our actions. We want to tell everybody about our goals, and to seek everybody’s support,” Ceku told reporters last week, warning once again that Kosovo might go it alone if negotiations fail to conclude with a compromise.

But Sejdiu and Thaci have recently also started to talk about alternative solutions.

"We consider that December 10 will mark the end of this negotiation process," Sejdiu told reporters last week. "We consider that it ends there. For us it is very important to proceed as quickly as possible."

Although still reluctant to be precise on the matter of concrete unilateral steps, Thaci said in a public debate in Pristina on October 19 that “Kosovo will have its own agenda after December 10.”

“Our friends who backed us up in 1999 and promised us NATO intervention, are now promising us that Kosovo will be recognised,” said Thaci. “And we don’t need any declaration… we already did that back in 1990 and failed to get support… recognition is what Kosovo needs,” he added.

In 1990, the assembly of Kosovo, whose previously extensive autonomy within federal Yugoslavia had just been curbed in controversial circumstances by Serbia, adopted a resolution that declared the territory an equal republic within the federation. Several months later the assembly also adopted a constitution which declared Kosovo an independent state. Neither of these acts was ever internationally recognised.

Today the situation is entirely different because Serbia is no longer in control of Kosovo. However, observers warn that a unilateral declaration of independence would create its own problems. It might bring into the open splits within the EU. As a result, fewer countries would recognize Kosovo, and that would make it harder for the new state to join international organisations.

Meanwhile, within Kosovo itself, a unilateral move might prompt the Serbs, who control part of the divided town of Mitrovica and the area north of it, to declare their own independence or annexation by Serbia.

Although he remains optimistic about the diplomatic process, Rexhep Selimi insists that a declaration should come first. “We have the necessary international support to declare independence after December 10. Nobody will come and do it for us. We have to do it for ourselves,” he says.

Jeta Abazi, another political science student, agrees. “This is like when you want to get a job and in order to do that you have to apply first,” she says. Abazi believes that no matter what happens after December 10, Kosovo’s assembly should declare independence and work hard to get international support, but only after a formal declaration.

Rexhep Selimi remains calm and optimistic, but he has a recommendation for Kosovo’s leadership. “The energy they are spending on convincing the world that they’re capable of running a state, they should invest instead in persuading the world to recognise that state,” he says.

Krenar Gashi is BIRN Kosovo Editor. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.