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| Proposal to let Kosovo access world bodies |
| 23 January 2007 | 16:16 -> 18:40
| Source:
B92, Beta, Reuters, AP |
VIENNA, PRIŠTINA --
Kosovo status proposal recommends the province be granted the right to join international bodies.
Kosovo should be given "the right to seek membership of international organisations and institutions", the proposal states according to several political and diplomatic sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Diplomats have previously said the proposal will not directly recommend independence for the majority Albanian province, but will outline provisions that amount to a form of independence supervised by the European Union.
A Western official said the provision on international bodies could include the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank though this is not stated explicitly in the text of the document.
Ahtisaari’s proposal ready
The UN special Kosovo envoy has finished work on his proposal defining the future Kosovo status.
Ahtisaari is due to present his final proposal to a Contact Group meeting scheduled for Friday. According to Martti Ahtisaari’s spokesman Remi Durlot, the UN envoy will then on February 2 travel to Priština and Belgrade to officially present his proposal to the negotiating sides.
It is widely speculated that the document will recommend some form of independence for Kosovo, even if independence is not specifically mentioned.
Durlot would not comment on the contents of the proposal, which will be submitted to the UN after Belgrade and Priština have had a chance to review it.
Durlot could not confirm that Ahtisaari’s proposal will be put before the UN Security Council by the end of March, the timeframe U.S. Kosovo talks representative Frank Wisner mentioned in an interview with the Associated Press.
Wisner told the AP on Monday that the United States hoped negotiations between both sides could be completed in February and brought to the U.N. Security Council in March.
Wisner also said that Kosovo is unlikely to come out of negotiations with immediate control over its governance, with Ahtisaari pushing for Kosovo to be under international supervision for a period, backed by a NATO peacekeeping force. He is also to recommend a plan to guarantee the rights of minorities.
”I can’t give you an exact date, that will mostly depend on the reactions to the proposal once it’s been presented”, Durlot told Beta, adding that Ahtisaari did not wish to see the process stall.
British Foreign Office's political director in Kosovo
A senior British official was due in Kosovo to build support for a U.N. proposal on the province's future expected to be unveiled later this week.
John Sawers, the political director of Britain's Foreign Office, will meet Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders and Serb representatives during the two-day visit.
His visit comes as the chief U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari plans to disclose recommendations on Kosovo's future to Western governments and Russia on Friday. Ahtisaari is to make his offer known to ethnic Albanians and Serbs on February 2 during a visit to the region.
The date of the meeting was confirmed by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders.
"Though the details of Ahtisaari's recommendation are not known yet, we expect that he will pave the way to the clear definition of the status and Kosovo's independence," said Skender Hyseni, the spokesman for ethnic Albanian negotiators.
The top British official in Kosovo, David Blunt, said Sawers will discuss the final status process with Kosovo's leadership.
"He will be emphasizing the U.K.'s strong support for a status settlement for Kosovo and for Kosovo's leaders from all communities, with the hard work that is still to come," Blunt said in a statement.
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