The British ambassador to Belgrade and Serbian relations with Kosovo

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Kosovo: This Week

The north remains quiet – in the northern way – with someone throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Serb-owned vehicle in north Mitrovica on March 14 that injured no one and may have nothing to do with ethnic differences according to police. The northern strategy is still “under study.” Most attention remains on the south, where the focus is corruption, the Kurti trial and Pristina politics. One northern story worth following is the renewed request – this time to the EU – for international support to rebuild a mosque in north Mitrovica. This remains problematic given the continued ethnic differences over status and the north; presumably the competent international authorities will continue to remain cautious about such an initiative. (These and some of the other items noted here can be followed up in the UNMIK local media update. )

Meanwhile:

The northern Serbs held a meeting of their assembly on March 16. They complained of reduced support from Belgrade, rejected the partition of Kosovo and criticized Belgrade’s apparent decision to cut the rail service from Serbia proper to Zvecan. Such a cutoff has long been sought by Pristina, which would like instead to bring the railway in the north under its control. If Belgrade did indeed decide to cut the service, it is a significant political concession to the EU.

The British ambassador to Belgrade made some interesting comments on Serbian relations with Kosovo. He reportedly said that the EU is not asking Belgrade to recognize Kosovo but to establish “some model of cooperation” with Pristina. Best guess is that the cooperation the Ambassador has in mind could be “indirect,” e.g., to work with EULEX and the ICO on implementation of the Ahtisaari Plan including on introducing Kosovo institutions in the north. Any other approach would seem to require actual negotiations between both sides on the forms and specifics of non-recognition cooperation. (For other comments about possible models see: No model right for Kosovo.)

NATO may be fine-tuning its message on the north. The KFOR Commander gave an interview in which he emphasized that the “so-called parallel structures” are “a political issue…[and] political questions can and should be solved by the relevant stakeholders.”…….

http://outsidewalls.blogspot.com/2010/03/kosovo-this-week.html

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