DefenseNews.com
Jan 30 2007

Russia Reacts Coolly to U.N. Report on Kosovo

By BROOKS TIGNER, BRUSSELS

The nations orchestrating Kosovo’s independence from Serbia have
splintered over a new report for achieving that goal, with Russia
alone giving a cool reception to the idea.
The report remains confidential. According to diplomatic sources
here, it studiously avoids any blatant references to the word
`independence’ for fear of stoking tensions – already high – between
Belgrade and Kosovo, and between the latter’s ethnic Albanian
majority and Serb minority.
The much-anticipated report by Martti Ahtisaari, the United Nations
special envoy to Kosovo, was presented Jan. 26 to the six-nation
Contact Group on Kosovo (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United
Kingdom and United States). Ahtisaari will travel in February to the
Balkans to unveil the content of his proposal to Belgrade and
Pristina.
As expected, all but Russia approved the report and its
recommendations for organizing Kosovo’s de facto separation. Allied
with Serbia, Russia said it awaits Belgrade’s reaction before drawing
its own conclusions.
Whether that will be officially forthcoming anytime soon is an open
question, however. Following Serbia’s national elections Jan. 21, a
new government has yet to be formed. However, nearly all parties
oppose outright independence for Kosovo.
NATO troops are standing by if there’s trouble.
During a Jan. 26 meeting of allied foreign ministers, for instance,
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO `fully
supports and will play its part in the U.N.-led process to resolve
Kosovo’s final status.’ The alliance currently has 16,000 troops to
oversee the breakaway province’s security.
Meanwhile, other regions of the world with separatist movements based
on uncertain legal premises such as that of Kosovo are closely
watching what happens in the Balkan province.
In the last year, for instance, Russian officials have made ambiguous
statements about any imposed independence for Kosovo and the
implications for territories such as Moldovo’s breakaway
Transdnistria province or the Caucasus’ three so-called frozen
conflicts – South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, and
Nagorno-Karabach, the Armenian-ethnic enclave which Azerbaijan lost
to Armenia in 1994.
Armenia’s Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan said last week in Yerevan
that `fresh thinking about Nagorno-Karabach’s status’ was needed and
that `the conventional legal treaties and conventions of the past 100
years do not apply to today’s situation’ in the enclave.
Armenia effectively incorporated Nagorno-Karabach into its territory
as a separate entity, though the international community does not
recognize the enclave’s independence.