Status solution postponed

Status solution postponed

“After the announcement of Serbian President Boris Tadić that the parliamentary elections will be held on January 21 in Serbia and after today’s consultations with members of the Contact Group, he has decided to present his proposal for the Kosovo status solution, without delays, after the Serbian parliamentary elections,” according to the statement from Ahtisaari’s office.

Serbian reactions: Mostly positive

Serbian PM Vojislav Koštunica reacted to Ahtisaari’s decision to postpone announcing his Kosovo status solution proposal by saying that “elections are an internal matter for each democratic and free state”.

“Ahtisaari’s mandate is not to ponder Serbian elections, but to enable real talks on Kosovo’s future, lacking so far, and help find a solution in line with the UN Charter”, Koštunica said.

President Boris Tadić told FoNet news agency that the UN special Kosovo envoy’s decision to postpone announcing his proposal for Kosovo was “useful”.

“I have always stood behind my position that artificial deadlines are neither contributing to the solution, nor stabilizing the situation in Serbia”, Tadić was quoted.

According to him, Ahtisaari was influenced by the fact Serbia will hold parliamentary elections, but also by different positions and conflicts of opinion within the Contact Group itself, regarding the desirable future status of Kosovo.

Kosovo Coordinating Center chairwoman Sanda Rašković-Ivić says Ahtisaari’s decision is fairly good and that the Serbian government had hoped for such an outcome.

“This gives us a chance to continue talks, to make those talks direct, and to reach an agreement at least on the technical issues”, Ivić-Rašković said.

“As for the reasons behind Mr. Ahtisaari’s decision, those can be interpreted in many ways, what I can say is that the Kosovo issue transcends partisan politics, it is an issue influencing the state”, she said.

Serbian foreign ministry said in a statement issued today that Martti Ahtisaari’s decision was expected.

The statement reads that the forthcoming elections’ result cannot influence Ahtisaari’s proposal, whatever it may be, but that it can influence Contact Group countries and the UN Security Council regarding that proposal.

Serbian Kosovo negotiating team member Marko Jakšić sees Ahtisaari’s postponement decision as “reasonable”.

“The negotiations did not go well, in fact, there were no real negotiations, all we had were technical issues talks, not actual negotiations”, he said.

“On the other hand, it is evident that the Kosovo solution cannot be reached abruptly, it will take time, the problem has been around for too long to now be solved ad hoc, by the end of this, or even next year”, Jakšić said.

Serb List for Kosovo leader Oliver Ivanović believes Ahtisaari’s decision was to be expected, since the Contact Group displayed a lack of unity over the dynamics of the final Kosovo status solution.

“European countries have shown more sensibility to this problem and have opposed the acceleration of the negotiations, they have been more understanding of the position of the democratic forces in the country, and clearly believe that announcing the negotiation’s results before the elections can be dangerous”, Ivanović said.

Priština: Deep regret

Immediately after UN Kosovo envoy Martti Ahtisaari made public his decision to postpone announcing his Kosovo status proposal for after the Serbian parliamentary elections, Priština’s negotiating team held an emergency meeting. Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu told reporters about the Albanian side’s position after the latest developments.

“We express deep regret over today’s announcement from Ahtisaari’s office to postpone his Kosovo status solution proposal”, Sejdiu said.

“We are particularly distressed with the fact this delay is linked to the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Serbia”, the Kosovo president said, adding that his team still expected that the Kosovo status solution will be reached as soon as possible, in the interest of all Kosovo citizens, the region, and the international community.