| Serwer: Further delays dangerous |
| 23 January 2007 | 13:31
| Source:
Beta |
WASHINGTON --
Daniel Serwer says Kosovo status solution proposal should not have been delayed on account of Serbia’s parliamentary vote
Vice president of the government-funded U.S. Institute of Peace Daniel Serwer believes the delay made no sense since the election’s outcome has shown “nothing has changed” compared to the period before the vote.
”Serbia will continue to oppose Kosovo’s sovereignty and that will not change, no matter what the makeup of the next government might be. Perhaps additional talks will yield some changes. If concessions are made toward Belgrade, there will have to be some toward Priština. That could take a month”, Serwer told Voice of America.
He warned that UN Security Council should make a decision by April 1, as there was otherwise “a serious danger of an outbreak of violence”.
Asked if there was a possibility that the international community could revise its attitude toward Kosovo’s status and adopt a position closer to that of Belgrade, Serwer said changes were already detectable, adding, however, that the fact remained “Serbia had a problem”.
“The problem is the two million Kosovo Albanians, who do not wish to have Serbia as their state, just as Serbia doesn’t want them for its citizens. It’s a serious problem for a democratic country to face, what to do with a sizeable segment of its population that does not wish to be a part of it”, Serwer said.
Serwer believes Moscow’s clearly announced veto for any solution unacceptable to Belgrade represented a problem for Washington, rather than for Brussels, although, in his words, Washington has not yet even started facing that problem.
Serwer added that he believed Moscow “will not support Belgrade forever”, while the U.S. will have to make a deal with Russia in order to reach an agreement in the UN Security Council.
”If there is no new Kosovo resolution at the UN SC, there is a possibility that member countries will start making independent decisions on whether to recognize Kosovo’s independence. In that case, we will no longer worry whether the radical forces will enter Serbia’s government through the front door, but whether the radical forces will gain power in Kosovo through the back door. That could lead to the birth of a Pan-Albanian idea in the Balkans, which would be dangerous”, Serwer concluded.
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