BELGRADE, 14 October 2003 — After weeks of uncertainty, deliberation and negotiations, the first direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina in more than four years start today in a move that could pave the way for discussions on the final status of the province of Kosovo.
The landmark talks will broach the emotive issue of the fate of some 3,700 missing persons, two-thirds of them ethnic Albanians.
Most are thought to be victims of the Serbian security forces in 1998 and 1999, the years when Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic cracked down hardest on the non-Serb population.
While that discussion will be difficult for Belgrade to confront, the talks will also focus on the problems faced by an estimated 200,000 Serbs who fled Kosovo after the 11 week NATO bombing campaign in 1999.
Only a few hundred have been able to return to their homes and around 80,000 live in enclaves which are heavily guarded by peacekeeping forces.
The most sensitive issue of all — whether Kosovo should be independent as its ethnic Albanian population wishes — is too politically-explosive to be on the table.
Kosovo formally remains a part of Serbia, albeit one administered with the help of the United Nations since the NATO bombing ended in 1999.
Since then, and despite the fall of the Milosevic regime three years ago, the two sides remain bitterly divided over the fate of Kosovo.
Serbia says the province is part of its territory and has urged full respect for UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which laid down rules for the province’s functioning. According to the resolution, the UN Security Council has the final word on the status of Kosovo.
In Kosovo, ethnic Albanian leaders have been under acute pressure not to dilute their demands for independence, as they compete for favor with the voters by adopting hard-line positions. Some aggressive diplomacy was used to persuade Albanian leaders not to boycott the talks, including pressure from Washington and the EU.
The former top US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, and the first head of the UN Mission, Bernard Kouchner, recently visited Pristina to pressure local leaders.
Their efforts, combined with those of the UN administrator, Harri Holkeri, yielded enough results to give the talks some hope of making progress. The ethnic Albanian side will be represented by Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova and the parliamentary Speaker Nexhat Daci.
But Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi will not be playing any role in the negotiations, having failed to obtain a mandate from the local parliament to attend the talks. The Parliament said last week that smoothing over relations with Belgrade “was not a priority”, given the ultimate goal of independence.
The Belgrade delegation will be headed by Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic and includes the agile Nebojsa Covic, a top official in charge of Kosovo affairs in the Serb government.
Covic said that the “meeting will mark the start of a process aimed at creating standards for a normal life for all Kosovo residents”. He urged participants to show “patience” in finding solutions that are in the interest of residents and displaced persons from both sides.
The Vienna talks are expected to aim to reinforce the multiethnic character of Kosovo, the main goal of the UN Mission there, as well as establish durable cooperation between Belgrade and Pristina over transport, energy and the fight against organized crime.
Among the topics to be discussed are bus and rail connections between Serbia and Kosovo and Serbian recognition of Pristina’s license plates.
Many Kosovo Albanians have to avoid traveling through Serbia because their travel documents and car plates are not recognized by the authorities there.
But the most significant aspect of the negotiations is that they are going ahead at all. The last — indirect — talks between the two sides were held in Rambouillet, France, in 1999, and their failure led on to the NATO air campaign against Serbia.
