U.S. expert says Kosovo platform is “Milošević’s dream”

U.S. expert on the Balkans Daniel Serwer says that the Serbian government’s platform for Kosovo is “exactly what Slobodan Milošević wanted”.

Izvor: Anadolu

Friday, 11.01.2013.

13:54

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ANKARA U.S. expert on the Balkans Daniel Serwer says that the Serbian government’s platform for Kosovo is “exactly what Slobodan Milosevic wanted”. He told Turkish Anadolu news agency that armed conflicts were possible after Serbia had shown with the new platform that it would not easily give up on northern Kosovo. U.S. expert says Kosovo platform is “Milosevic’s dream” “I think the new platform for Kosovo cannot help much in relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Belgrade is trying to keep a tendency of sovereignty in the entire Kosovo and enable a system that would govern Kosovo Serbs separately. With such formula Albanians would end up without a state and they would continue to live inside Serbia’s borders and that was precisely Milosevic’s dream,“ explained the Johns Hopkins University professor. “Armed conflicts are also possible after the Serbian initiative but I do not want to say that I support armed conflicts. In any case, Kosovo will have to pay attention to sovereignty of its entire territory because of possible security threats that Pristina could face in the future due to Serbia’s tendencies,” he pointed out. However, Serwer is convinced that the drawing of borders and trade in territories in the Balkans is finished. “I think that the era of drawing borders in the Balkans is long over. It is known that the international community has clearly rejected any new drawing or changes of borders in the Balkans,” he explained. The U.S. expert noted that Serbia, despite the fact that it had never officially recognized Kosovo’s statehood, had in fact recognized Kosovo the moment it decided to sit at the same negotiating table with Pristina politicians. He also believes that the European Union will allow Serbia to speed up its EU integration process despite the latest platform for Kosovo. “The EU will neither openly reject nor accept the Serbian platform. It will try to continue the EU integration process with Serbia while ignoring the new initiative as such,” Serwer underscored. He also warned that Serbia would certainly try to connect the case of Kosovo with Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to get “at least something out of it”. “Belgrade will try to profit after the defeat in Kosovo and drag Bosnia-Herzegovina into the entire issue even though those are two different cases with different constitutional, historical, diplomatic and ethnic circumstances,” Serwer concluded. Daniel Serwer (Radio Free Europe, file) Anadolu

U.S. expert says Kosovo platform is “Milošević’s dream”

“I think the new platform for Kosovo cannot help much in relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Belgrade is trying to keep a tendency of sovereignty in the entire Kosovo and enable a system that would govern Kosovo Serbs separately. With such formula Albanians would end up without a state and they would continue to live inside Serbia’s borders and that was precisely Milošević’s dream,“ explained the Johns Hopkins University professor.

“Armed conflicts are also possible after the Serbian initiative but I do not want to say that I support armed conflicts. In any case, Kosovo will have to pay attention to sovereignty of its entire territory because of possible security threats that Priština could face in the future due to Serbia’s tendencies,” he pointed out.

However, Serwer is convinced that the drawing of borders and trade in territories in the Balkans is finished.

“I think that the era of drawing borders in the Balkans is long over. It is known that the international community has clearly rejected any new drawing or changes of borders in the Balkans,” he explained.

The U.S. expert noted that Serbia, despite the fact that it had never officially recognized Kosovo’s statehood, had in fact recognized Kosovo the moment it decided to sit at the same negotiating table with Priština politicians.

He also believes that the European Union will allow Serbia to speed up its EU integration process despite the latest platform for Kosovo.

“The EU will neither openly reject nor accept the Serbian platform. It will try to continue the EU integration process with Serbia while ignoring the new initiative as such,” Serwer underscored.

He also warned that Serbia would certainly try to connect the case of Kosovo with Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to get “at least something out of it”.

“Belgrade will try to profit after the defeat in Kosovo and drag Bosnia-Herzegovina into the entire issue even though those are two different cases with different constitutional, historical, diplomatic and ethnic circumstances,” Serwer concluded.

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