“Supervised independence better than partition”

«I am afraid that the entire Serbian strategy for the defense of Kosovo is based on the ideas of cabinet politicians who are looking to avoid responsibility for being in government at the worst time possible...»

At last, A Serb who is saying aloud what so many believe. Kosovo was a Serbian province and Serbia did nothing intelligent to 'share power' with the Albanians. Milosevic accomplished the worst when he revoked the autonomous status in 1989 and sent in the army to crush the rebellion of a few!

Supervised independence is on since 2000, since the arrival of NATO in the province. Actually, independence is the only solution that would last and create a new dynamic between the Serbs and the Albanians.

The politicians know this, just as us all, but they won't say.

one more serb leader accepting the trutht hat Kosova is definitely heading for Independence as Serbia has no influence over kosova at all.
I hope some serb posters here see that their leaders are starting to accept the new reality.

Finally some smart observation by Mr. Trajkovic. Indeed supervised independence is a solution, and as such was accepted by US and EU. Hope that Serbia and Russia finally understand the Ahtisaari plan and see the good parts of it. There is an irritating part for Serbs too, but they should know that none who lost the war was in a position to choose what they want out of a lost territory.

At least somebody knows what is the best for K-Serbs.Not unlike some politicians in belgrade trying to play with peoples lives for their personal interests.

Lets hear the Serb camp scrutinize him again! The truth hurts a little I assume but many people say the same thing over and over again! Except for the the PM and President who made big promising not loosing something they no longer control. When they will they will be useless unfortunately, But that's when (I hope) Serbia will get a new focus of EU.

Wow, and I thought Trajkovic was supposed to be one of the more 'hard-line' leaders. Reality bites, and leadership finally shows its face. He understands that partition can only benefit the minority of K Serbs in the north, who have the least to worry about in any scenario, and will damn the majority of K Serbs south of the Ibar. I guess he's also figured out that Kosova remaining in any way part of Serbia will only revive the armed resistance where it left off in 1999, as Teni astutely observes, and this is not good for the minority, no matter how many Serbian troops might again try in vain to put it down.

What is really needed now from Trajkovic and others like Oliver Ivanovic is to declare independence from Belgrade and forcefully assert their own views as realistic K Serbs, looking after their own interests, not Belgrade's interests in face-saving or Trepca.

The very best way for any kind of independence with KSerb autonomous regions, whether the Ahtissari Plan or otherwise, to work in practice in favour of the K Serbs is for the K Serb leadership to publicly declare itself a partner to the K Albanian leadership in finding the best solutins to construct and indepndent, multi-ethnic Kosova. I am very well aware of the difficulties of that, and I am far, I mean far, from praising the K Albanian effort to date. But exactly the thing that maintains this rage among a militant minority of K Albanians is the fact that the leadership of the 10% minority still insist they have a right to tell the 90% majority what to do, in this case to be returned to a state that recently tried to annihilate them. Acting as partners would dispel most of that hostility. It is not so much various laws, rules, 'protection' etc - importnat as it is - that will make the minority secure ina place where 90% are another group, but actually breaking down the reasons for hostility, distrust, fear etc.

I that, the supervised independence is a good option not only for Kosovars, but for all parties implicated in Kosovo issue. This solution will offer many good things in all aspects. First of all, it will be a good thing for International Law, because is respecting the population right for self-determination, and then there is good ways for Serbians to take steps towards EU, and not to turn back to ancient policies. As we know we are living in a “union Time” not division. All European countries were in war each-other but now they are united to prevent wars to others countries. Definitely, Serbians have to forget Kosova, and Kosovars have to think about coming steps for EU integration. Because, this is a real situation. I don’t think that exist such stupid leaders in EU, in order to allow a new war in the middle of Europe.
EU, Serbian, kosovars leaders should think about and peace future, not to influence hate to people of Europe, Serbians and Kosovars.
The Bosnia case will always serve as a fact, by which internationals must be known what does mean to act wrong.
Albanians are not 2 millions, they are more. And if they are influenced in bad way they can be a danger for the peace in Europe.
Please, international restrain by the declaration that influence nervous and hate.

He also criticized the "Serbian Government, stating that Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica “does not know what he wants” for Kosovo."

As I said earlier in one comment, Serb politicians really don't have any idea on how to continue th talks, have no idea what they really want even if talks were postponed with their initiative, through Russian diplomats.
But, one think to remind you, cound down have started, and we already count 106 days of negotiations.

The pro-Albanian posts have misinterpreted Trajkovic's statement to mean he is now supporting supervized independence. Please read again, this time more carefully. He is actually against BOTH independence and partition, it is just that he finds the latter even less palatable than the former! But I suspect a lot of Serbs would disagree with him on the partition issue.

whats wrong yovan? did you read it with your anti Albanian glasses on the article, and caught something we would not get because of our limited intelligence? We had supervised independence, and we are moving up not down. As for Serbia well too much pressure on one single branch of Russia. Dont forget Russia loves the Euro and would not like any Chinese currency or other better than the EURO, so all your threats... zero

Hold on a sec! Don't get too excited by this. To all those who seem to be applauding the comments by Trajkovic it is worth pointing out that if you read them again they are anything but sensible - or moderate. He is arguing that it is better to have Kosovo remain whole in the hope that Serbia can retake it again in the future than allow partition, which would show that Serbia had actually given up its claim to the rest of the province.

I think that most Albanians would in actual fact prefer to have a divided, but legal, Kosovo with good relations with Belgrade than an independent Kosovo that is unrecognised, inhabited by an unruly Serbian population in the north that refuses to accept Pristina's rule and is under economic blockade by Serbia, which refuses to recognise it. Partition is the answer!

The preferred solution to Kosovo by Serbs - any Serbs for that matter - are in the following order of preference:

1. No independence - Autonomy
2. Supervised independence - full protection of Serbs
3. Partition - Free for all

As a K Serb, Trajković is fully in his right to take the viewpoint he has because he and the rest of his beleaguered community have to live in Kosovo, not like officials in Belgrade who get back on the Autoput and head home once the negotiations are over.

Furthermore, by saying supervised independence is better than partition, I'm quite sure he means this with full political, institutional, and cultural rights to local affairs and development. He is certainly not thinking Albanian generosity is going to give his people what they want. So even though this was not explicitly mentioned in the article, I'm pretty sure Trajković meant supervised indepedendence with decentralization and Serbian self-rule, regardless of location. This would be, in his eyes, the lesser of the two evils.

the best solution is of course supverised broad autonomy.
and, maybe, just as a suggestion in order to improve albanian credibility... you should try to avoid the
read it again, the man says something different. both is bad, in his view, only supervised independence would be better than partition according to him. he doesn´t mention in one single sentence, that independece was the only and best solution.
read it again! but this time, don´t read it through your dreamers-lenses!

lowe thnx for your explaining, without it we couldn't get the real picture.

I think Mr. Trajkovic is confused and is contradicting himself. He wants Kosovo to be left as a whole so Serbia can take it over again, but at the same time recognizes “that Kosovo today, not only politically and militarily, but economically as well, is far removed from Serbia.”. I think reality and wish-washy ideas are fighting in his head.



One thing I think he is very clear on is the fact the Serb politicians’ stand on Kosovo is exclusively designed to benefit their own personal political careers.

Partition would mean giving up Land that is Serbian, and would cause trouble in the future, basically supervised independence would be better as Serbia could regain control of the province at a later time.

Get the thought out of your head that this guy supports independence. He merely thinks it would be better than partition. luckily for him he won't have to choose as there will be no partition and certainly no independence.

Kosovo is too weak and will never be a country. Accept autonomy or loose it all. After the 120 day's of talks if you Albanians can't accept it then Kosovo will never have any autonomy and will never be independent.

Kosovo's government has been under international supervision for 8 years now with dismal results for Kosovo's minorities. That doesn't offer much hope for the future.

The Serb autonomy in the Ahtisaari proposal has been designed by the Albanian side so that it gives no hard guarantees. Without stronger guarantees most of the remaining Serbs south of the Ibar will leave immediately when Kosovo becomes independent. Northern Mitrovica will soon be Albanised and after that adjacent Zvecan won't take long either. Leposavic has a nice army base that needs to be manned and those soldiers need to house their families - and soon the Serbs will be leaving here too. Brezovica will be privatised and Albanian owned and Strpce's Serbs will soon start loosing their jobs and leave.

Mr. Trajkovic may dream forever - the chance of regaining influence later on is zero.

i absolutely agree with the thrust of this article -- supervised independence is the way to go -- we have been arguing this for many years now, and with very good reason. the hope must be, as other posters have said -- and as i have discussed both here(US) and there (balkans) -- that we can build a multi-ethnic state; even in kosovo/a that is not impossible. but given the outside pressures, esp.ly from belgrade, it is near to impossible, which is why the k-serbs must themselves declare independence of their "big brothers" in blgd and moscow, and look after their own real interests -- in conjunction w k-albanians and other minorities,other individuals.

but it is obvious that before meaningful reconciliation can happen there must be a REckoning of what has happened in the past, and yes, by all sides. they cannot continue to hide and shelter war criminals in their midst -- aside from the obvious ethical issues, it is simply counter-productive.

many posters (mostly albanian) have referenced the more moderate voices (in serbian)of "common" serbs in serbia and kosovo/a, versus the strident (mainly serb)ultra-nationalist voices (in english) from the exile community. and those more moderate voices need some prominence -- i wish someone would translate a few into english. it is so very ironic that b92 has become in many ways, perhaps unwittingly, the voice of Serb reaction. i do believe in the democratic facilitation of opinion, but having lived (awake) thru the 90s, those extremist voices resonate with me in a very terrible and frightening way.

still, at the end of the day, i believe we will acheive muti-ethnic democracy in kosovo/a. the idea of further and further partitioning is worse than opening pandora's box -- it is positively evil. so-called "republika srpska" is not and never will be a part of serbia -- those people are bosnian, and dodik is playing an ugly, dangerous game. why is he allowed such free reign under "international supervision"? -- this is a lingering question of mine.

ciao!

Pure propaganda. How much did B92 get paid in US dollars for misinterpreting that story? We all know that B92 is a mouthpiece for the US.

Why not have both? Let N Kosovo remain in Serbia, and let the rest of Kosovo continue on its path to achieve independence as a multi-cultural state affording rights and guarantees to its minorities.

Partition would be the best deal for those Serbs living in the north since they don't want to be ruled by Prishtina, and the supervised independence would be an acceptable plan for those remaining in the rest of Kosovo.

one more serb leader accepting the trutht hat Kosova is definitely heading for Independence as Serbia has no influence over kosova at all.
I hope some serb posters here see that their leaders are starting to accept the new reality.

Finally some smart observation by Mr. Trajkovic. Indeed supervised independence is a solution, and as such was accepted by US and EU. Hope that Serbia and Russia finally understand the Ahtisaari plan and see the good parts of it. There is an irritating part for Serbs too, but they should know that none who lost the war was in a position to choose what they want out of a lost territory.

«I am afraid that the entire Serbian strategy for the defense of Kosovo is based on the ideas of cabinet politicians who are looking to avoid responsibility for being in government at the worst time possible...»

At last, A Serb who is saying aloud what so many believe. Kosovo was a Serbian province and Serbia did nothing intelligent to 'share power' with the Albanians. Milosevic accomplished the worst when he revoked the autonomous status in 1989 and sent in the army to crush the rebellion of a few!

Supervised independence is on since 2000, since the arrival of NATO in the province. Actually, independence is the only solution that would last and create a new dynamic between the Serbs and the Albanians.

The politicians know this, just as us all, but they won't say.

I that, the supervised independence is a good option not only for Kosovars, but for all parties implicated in Kosovo issue. This solution will offer many good things in all aspects. First of all, it will be a good thing for International Law, because is respecting the population right for self-determination, and then there is good ways for Serbians to take steps towards EU, and not to turn back to ancient policies. As we know we are living in a “union Time” not division. All European countries were in war each-other but now they are united to prevent wars to others countries. Definitely, Serbians have to forget Kosova, and Kosovars have to think about coming steps for EU integration. Because, this is a real situation. I don’t think that exist such stupid leaders in EU, in order to allow a new war in the middle of Europe.
EU, Serbian, kosovars leaders should think about and peace future, not to influence hate to people of Europe, Serbians and Kosovars.
The Bosnia case will always serve as a fact, by which internationals must be known what does mean to act wrong.
Albanians are not 2 millions, they are more. And if they are influenced in bad way they can be a danger for the peace in Europe.
Please, international restrain by the declaration that influence nervous and hate.

Lets hear the Serb camp scrutinize him again! The truth hurts a little I assume but many people say the same thing over and over again! Except for the the PM and President who made big promising not loosing something they no longer control. When they will they will be useless unfortunately, But that's when (I hope) Serbia will get a new focus of EU.

At least somebody knows what is the best for K-Serbs.Not unlike some politicians in belgrade trying to play with peoples lives for their personal interests.

Wow, and I thought Trajkovic was supposed to be one of the more 'hard-line' leaders. Reality bites, and leadership finally shows its face. He understands that partition can only benefit the minority of K Serbs in the north, who have the least to worry about in any scenario, and will damn the majority of K Serbs south of the Ibar. I guess he's also figured out that Kosova remaining in any way part of Serbia will only revive the armed resistance where it left off in 1999, as Teni astutely observes, and this is not good for the minority, no matter how many Serbian troops might again try in vain to put it down.

What is really needed now from Trajkovic and others like Oliver Ivanovic is to declare independence from Belgrade and forcefully assert their own views as realistic K Serbs, looking after their own interests, not Belgrade's interests in face-saving or Trepca.

The very best way for any kind of independence with KSerb autonomous regions, whether the Ahtissari Plan or otherwise, to work in practice in favour of the K Serbs is for the K Serb leadership to publicly declare itself a partner to the K Albanian leadership in finding the best solutins to construct and indepndent, multi-ethnic Kosova. I am very well aware of the difficulties of that, and I am far, I mean far, from praising the K Albanian effort to date. But exactly the thing that maintains this rage among a militant minority of K Albanians is the fact that the leadership of the 10% minority still insist they have a right to tell the 90% majority what to do, in this case to be returned to a state that recently tried to annihilate them. Acting as partners would dispel most of that hostility. It is not so much various laws, rules, 'protection' etc - importnat as it is - that will make the minority secure ina place where 90% are another group, but actually breaking down the reasons for hostility, distrust, fear etc.

Hold on a sec! Don't get too excited by this. To all those who seem to be applauding the comments by Trajkovic it is worth pointing out that if you read them again they are anything but sensible - or moderate. He is arguing that it is better to have Kosovo remain whole in the hope that Serbia can retake it again in the future than allow partition, which would show that Serbia had actually given up its claim to the rest of the province.

I think that most Albanians would in actual fact prefer to have a divided, but legal, Kosovo with good relations with Belgrade than an independent Kosovo that is unrecognised, inhabited by an unruly Serbian population in the north that refuses to accept Pristina's rule and is under economic blockade by Serbia, which refuses to recognise it. Partition is the answer!

the best solution is of course supverised broad autonomy.
and, maybe, just as a suggestion in order to improve albanian credibility... you should try to avoid the
read it again, the man says something different. both is bad, in his view, only supervised independence would be better than partition according to him. he doesn´t mention in one single sentence, that independece was the only and best solution.
read it again! but this time, don´t read it through your dreamers-lenses!

lowe thnx for your explaining, without it we couldn't get the real picture.

He also criticized the "Serbian Government, stating that Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica “does not know what he wants” for Kosovo."

As I said earlier in one comment, Serb politicians really don't have any idea on how to continue th talks, have no idea what they really want even if talks were postponed with their initiative, through Russian diplomats.
But, one think to remind you, cound down have started, and we already count 106 days of negotiations.

The pro-Albanian posts have misinterpreted Trajkovic's statement to mean he is now supporting supervized independence. Please read again, this time more carefully. He is actually against BOTH independence and partition, it is just that he finds the latter even less palatable than the former! But I suspect a lot of Serbs would disagree with him on the partition issue.

The preferred solution to Kosovo by Serbs - any Serbs for that matter - are in the following order of preference:

1. No independence - Autonomy
2. Supervised independence - full protection of Serbs
3. Partition - Free for all

As a K Serb, Trajković is fully in his right to take the viewpoint he has because he and the rest of his beleaguered community have to live in Kosovo, not like officials in Belgrade who get back on the Autoput and head home once the negotiations are over.

Furthermore, by saying supervised independence is better than partition, I'm quite sure he means this with full political, institutional, and cultural rights to local affairs and development. He is certainly not thinking Albanian generosity is going to give his people what they want. So even though this was not explicitly mentioned in the article, I'm pretty sure Trajković meant supervised indepedendence with decentralization and Serbian self-rule, regardless of location. This would be, in his eyes, the lesser of the two evils.

I think Mr. Trajkovic is confused and is contradicting himself. He wants Kosovo to be left as a whole so Serbia can take it over again, but at the same time recognizes “that Kosovo today, not only politically and militarily, but economically as well, is far removed from Serbia.”. I think reality and wish-washy ideas are fighting in his head.



One thing I think he is very clear on is the fact the Serb politicians’ stand on Kosovo is exclusively designed to benefit their own personal political careers.

whats wrong yovan? did you read it with your anti Albanian glasses on the article, and caught something we would not get because of our limited intelligence? We had supervised independence, and we are moving up not down. As for Serbia well too much pressure on one single branch of Russia. Dont forget Russia loves the Euro and would not like any Chinese currency or other better than the EURO, so all your threats... zero

Partition would mean giving up Land that is Serbian, and would cause trouble in the future, basically supervised independence would be better as Serbia could regain control of the province at a later time.

Get the thought out of your head that this guy supports independence. He merely thinks it would be better than partition. luckily for him he won't have to choose as there will be no partition and certainly no independence.

Kosovo is too weak and will never be a country. Accept autonomy or loose it all. After the 120 day's of talks if you Albanians can't accept it then Kosovo will never have any autonomy and will never be independent.

Kosovo's government has been under international supervision for 8 years now with dismal results for Kosovo's minorities. That doesn't offer much hope for the future.

The Serb autonomy in the Ahtisaari proposal has been designed by the Albanian side so that it gives no hard guarantees. Without stronger guarantees most of the remaining Serbs south of the Ibar will leave immediately when Kosovo becomes independent. Northern Mitrovica will soon be Albanised and after that adjacent Zvecan won't take long either. Leposavic has a nice army base that needs to be manned and those soldiers need to house their families - and soon the Serbs will be leaving here too. Brezovica will be privatised and Albanian owned and Strpce's Serbs will soon start loosing their jobs and leave.

Mr. Trajkovic may dream forever - the chance of regaining influence later on is zero.

i absolutely agree with the thrust of this article -- supervised independence is the way to go -- we have been arguing this for many years now, and with very good reason. the hope must be, as other posters have said -- and as i have discussed both here(US) and there (balkans) -- that we can build a multi-ethnic state; even in kosovo/a that is not impossible. but given the outside pressures, esp.ly from belgrade, it is near to impossible, which is why the k-serbs must themselves declare independence of their "big brothers" in blgd and moscow, and look after their own real interests -- in conjunction w k-albanians and other minorities,other individuals.

but it is obvious that before meaningful reconciliation can happen there must be a REckoning of what has happened in the past, and yes, by all sides. they cannot continue to hide and shelter war criminals in their midst -- aside from the obvious ethical issues, it is simply counter-productive.

many posters (mostly albanian) have referenced the more moderate voices (in serbian)of "common" serbs in serbia and kosovo/a, versus the strident (mainly serb)ultra-nationalist voices (in english) from the exile community. and those more moderate voices need some prominence -- i wish someone would translate a few into english. it is so very ironic that b92 has become in many ways, perhaps unwittingly, the voice of Serb reaction. i do believe in the democratic facilitation of opinion, but having lived (awake) thru the 90s, those extremist voices resonate with me in a very terrible and frightening way.

still, at the end of the day, i believe we will acheive muti-ethnic democracy in kosovo/a. the idea of further and further partitioning is worse than opening pandora's box -- it is positively evil. so-called "republika srpska" is not and never will be a part of serbia -- those people are bosnian, and dodik is playing an ugly, dangerous game. why is he allowed such free reign under "international supervision"? -- this is a lingering question of mine.

ciao!

Pure propaganda. How much did B92 get paid in US dollars for misinterpreting that story? We all know that B92 is a mouthpiece for the US.

Why not have both? Let N Kosovo remain in Serbia, and let the rest of Kosovo continue on its path to achieve independence as a multi-cultural state affording rights and guarantees to its minorities.

Partition would be the best deal for those Serbs living in the north since they don't want to be ruled by Prishtina, and the supervised independence would be an acceptable plan for those remaining in the rest of Kosovo.