UN Chief Signals Shift on Kosovo

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UN Chief Signals Shift on Kosovo By Robert Marquand Christian Science Monitor
June 23, 2008
Despite Russian and Serbian opposition, UN Secretary-General Ban KiMoon said Friday the UN would gradually cede its role.
For 16 months, Russia and the West have been a biteyeball-to-eyeball in the United Nations Security Council over thestatus of Kosovo. But to borrow Dean Rusk's famous phrase duringthe 1963 Cuban missile crisis, it appears that UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki Moon has just blinked.
Mr. Ban's concession on Friday appeared to brush aside Russia'sobjections and clear the way to end the nine-year "UNMIK" missionin Kosovo. Last week, Pristina authorities inked a milestoneconstitution, following a February declaration of independence. Formuch of the past nine years, Kosovars described themselves asbystanders in their own fate; the future of this gritty city wascontrolled by Moscow, Washington, Brussels, and New York. A UNdeparture may begin to change that.
"Ban Ki Moon has clearly moved closer to the position of thosestates that recognize Kosovo, but from the Serb position, they'vegot what they wanted," says James Lyon of the International CrisisGroup in Belgrade. "They have de facto taken Kosovo north of theIbar River."
To be sure, Serbs strongly contest Kosovo. On Friday, a parliamentof Kosovo Serbs will meet, backed directly by Belgrade. The body,considered illegal by Western officials, will coordinate Serbagencies, police, security, and even Ministry of Defense offices.It remains an open question whether the European Union can enterthe largest enclave, Mitrovica.
"What will not be helpful is to push this problem off," says asenior Western diplomat affiliated with an international agency."We don't want Kosovo as an international ward for years to come&.Drift contributes not just to instability in Kosovo. It contributesto Serb instability, [which is] the problem in the region."
Kosovo is a "second tier" priority for the United States and theWest at a time of an Iran-Israel crisis, the Iraq war, andAfghanistan. Yet the dispute pits key principles in internationalaffairs  state sovereignty against the relatively new concept ofself-determination for the Kosovars. It is seen as a test ofwhether the Balkans can integrate into Europe  or are destined todevolve into nationalistic groups. On Friday at a special SecurityCouncil meeting, Ban described the Kosovo problem as the mostdifficult of his diplomatic career.
Lacking Security Council authority, the question of the UN inKosovo had come down to Ban's authority as an arbiter, with Moscowsaying he couldn't pull the UN out of the country without theSecurity Council, and most Western diplomats saying he could. Bansaid Kosovo's newly declared independence created "profound newrealities" on the ground. "It is ... the view of the United Nationsthat [a reconfiguration] constitutes the best possible way in orderto manage the situation in Kosovo.&"
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a June 19 speechthat Russia's internal developments have been a contributingfactor, despite cooperation in many key areas. "[T]here is somedisappointment that we have not been able to move closer to thecommon values with Russia that one would have thought possible in2000," Ms. Rice said. "In fact, it is the internal development ofRussia away from a more democratic course that has been, in someways, the hardest part of managing the relationship."
Even a year ago it was possible to talk about a orderly,nonviolent, and relatively low-cost resolution of Kosovo. Afternine years, the UN would leave, the EU would come in. The "lastchapter" of the Balkan chaos would close  an end to a decade of abloody "Greater Serbia" campaign by Serb strongman SlobodanMilosevic. Yet in a fateful miscalculation, diplomats admit Moscownever agreed to vote affirmatively in the Security Council bringing confusion and bickering among allies. Moscow's diplomaticmaneuvering has cost little; the West, in comparison, has spentbillions.
"You don't have a Security Council resolution, so you have theSpanish and Greeks opposing progress. You don't have Serbiaisolated," said a Western diplomat, one of several interviewed offthe record in Pristina. "We've got a customs house burned down inFebruary by the Serbs that no one at NATO has asked to rebuild."Lacking Security Council approval, the complications faced by theKosovars has strained its capability, talent, and preparedness.
"We thought we'd have a quick launch, Security Council approval,and that Kosovo would be well down the road toward establishingitself. Instead, we well have to muddle through," another Westernofficial said. "Kosovo was thrown a screwball by Serbia," arguesMr. Lyon, "No one expected Serbia to be able to stymie the SecurityCouncil, no one expected Russia to go to the mat for Serbia, or forSerbs to so vehemently insist on parallel institutions in theirenclaves."
Currently, instead of the more than 100 nation recognition thatsources say the US government told Kosovo it would secure, only 43nations have so far signed on ahead of a General Assembly meetingin September. The lack of a resolution continues to mean an uphillclimb for Pristina, officials say. Instead of a NATO mission thatwould now be training police and supporting the new Kosovogovernment, NATO is still keeping the two sides apart. Instead ofan EU mission on the ground, Brussels is working out disputes amongmembers. Instead of a single legal system, there are Kosovar andSerb systems. Instead of an expected isolation of Serbia Slovakia, Greece, Spain, and Russia are backing Belgrade's attemptto subvert the independence.
More Information on the Security Council
More Information on Kosovo

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