THE STALEMATE between Serbia and Russia and the European Union and United Nations over the future of Kosovo is a time bomb that must be deactivated, said Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado last week.
The Portuguese minister, speaking on behalf of the European Union, whose six month rotating presidency Portugal currently holds, said the uncertainty over the Kosovo question was leading to instability in the Balkans, the traditional tinderbox of Europe.
The United Nations and European Union want Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic population composed of Muslim Albanians, to become an independent state.
The Serbians, on the other hand, say they are willing to allow regional autonomy but state that the troubled province must remain politically and territorially linked to Serbia for its regional security. In this, it is backed by its traditional and historic orthodox ally Russia.
Luís Amado stated that frosty relations between Albanians and Serbs were creating a time bomb buried on Serbia’s own back yard, which had to be diffused by the EU and her partners.
The conclusion was published in a report last week following the findings of the International Crisis Group, a crisis think tank which is based in Brussels. The same message was delivered by the Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado during an official visit to the Kosovo capital of Pristina, also last week.
“If at the end of this diplomatic process we have, on the one hand, the position of the United States and, on the other, that of Russia, with Brussels taking no position, we will end up with a serious problem not only for the EU but also for the stability of the region,” Luís Amado told Reuters.
Before the visit to Pristina, Luís Amado made a visit to the Serbian capital Belgrade where he held a meeting with the Serbian Prime Minister Agim Céku and Foreign Minister Slobodan Samardzic.
“We are in Europe and the EU has an important responsibility in this question and we must discuss it at the next Council of Ministers,” he said.
The President of Kosovo, Fatimir Sejdiu, confirmed that it was “unacceptable” for Serbia to accept yet another stretching of the legal definition on the Serbian province that since 1999 has been under the control and supervision of UN peacekeeping troops.
But the International Crisis Group in Brussels is likely to support a drive for Kosovan independence by 2008 – the time limit that the troika composed of Russia, the European Union and the United States has to try and find a solution to the crisis.
A new round of negotiations between the troika is due to be held in Vienna on August 30 with an objective to create a new resolution that would be acceptable to Russia. However, in order to avoid the region exploding into violence the European Union is likely to enlist the diplomatic help of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy which all recognise Kosovan rights to independence.
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