"Partition possible solution for Kosovo problem"

BELGRADE -- Erhard Busek says that "when the crisis in the north eases", Priština, Belgrade and the international community should consider possible solutions for Kosovo.

The former Austrian vice-chancellor and coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe specified in an interview for Belgrade's Večernje Novosti daily that one of those solutions "could be a partition of Kosovo".

Although there are few advocates of the idea in the EU at the moment, as most member-countries claim that "there can be no more change of borders in the Balkans", Busek expressed his belief that in time, and with the crisis going on, things could change and that could become the prevailing stand in the union.

"Additional complications are of no use to anyone, and it is obvious that the current tactics do not give results. I agree that the dialogue is the only path, in scope of which issues which seem to be impossible at the moment should also be discussed, such as the division of Kosovo," Busek told the newspaper.

The Austrian politician is convinced that the delineation of new frontiers in Kosovo and Metohija would not pose new problems for the region, but, as he put it, if everyone agrees on the matter, it would additionally and permanently stabilize the Balkans.

"I do not see why the international community would not agree on the division if Belgrade and Priština reached an agreement on the issue. All details of such resolution of the Kosovo stalemate could be agreed at some kind of 'Kosovo Dayton', with the international community as the guarantor of the accord," Busek concluded.