Fri Feb 2, 2007
By Ellie Tzortzi
BELGRADE (Reuters) - United Nations special envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Friday avoided any pronouncement on the future sovereignty of Kosovo, but handed Serbia a plan that sets its breakaway province firmly on a path to independence.
As diplomats had long suggested, Ahtisaari gave Serbian President Boris Tadic a proposal that did not mention the word 'independence' or address the loss of Serbia's sovereignty.
But it allows Kosovo to access international bodies normally reserved for sovereign states and gives it the right to raise its own flag, with its own national anthem and other symbols.
"The settlement provides for an international representative to supervise the implementation," Ahtisaari told a news conference. The NATO-led peace force "will continue to provide a safe and secure environment ... as long as necessary."
The settlement includes measures to "promote sustainable economic development including Kosovo's ability to apply for membership in international financial institutions", he added.
Ahtisaari declined several opportunities to address the issue of Kosovo's ultimate status, saying this would be settled by the United Nations Security Council once he formally presents his plan, following a last round of consultations.
The envoy said the diametrically opposed positions of the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians were "extremely fixed", but he was allowing them one more chance to find compromise in talks this month on the future status of the territory.
Invitations would be sent for a meeting in Vienna on February 13 and it would be up to Serbs and leaders of Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority to decide whether to turn up.
The former Finnish president mediated months of largely fruitless talks in 2006 in search of a compromise. Maybe they have had enough, he said. "I can't force anyone to participate."
There was also no point in waiting for a new government to be formed following Serbia's inconclusive election last month, he said. "Whether it's now or a little bit later, the same people would be on either side of the table."
"The final process starts when the plan enters the Security Council," Ahtisaari said, indicating that could be next month.
The European Union urged both sides to respond "positively and constructively" to Ahtisaari's proposals.
SERB, ALBANIAN MEDIA AGREE
Ahtisaari was to present his plan later on Friday in Kosovo's capital Pristina, where newspapers already celebrated what one called a "whiff of statehood" in the air.
The daily Express said he was "bringing Kosovo the right to self-determination", and in Belgrade Serb newspapers agreed.
"The word independence is not mentioned, but a plan written like this leaves no room for uncertainty," wrote Vecernje Novosti.
Kosovo has been run by the U.N. since 1999 when 11 weeks of bombing by NATO forced the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces, accused of killing 10,000 Albanians during a counter-insurgency war.
Some 100,000 ethnic Serbs remain in the province, half of them in the northern part that borders Serbia. Some predict violence and secession or partition, and both NATO and the U.N. mission have made contingency plans for a crisis.
"There is nothing more we can do," said Kosovo Serb accountant Milica Knezevic, "there's no life for us here."
"The deal is done, we are being fooled," said pensioner Dusan Obradovic.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who has condemned Ahtisaari for "anti-Serb bias", has taken the lead in rejecting his plan in advance and refused to meet the envoy on Friday.
The poor, landlocked province of two million is cherished by Serbia for its heritage as the medieval homeland of the nation.
President Tadic has told Serbs Kosovo might already be lost.
But Kostunica says he will never accept this and is urging all parties in the next government to solemnly pledge that Serbia will cut ties with any country recognizing the province as an independent state, including all major Western powers.
(Additional reporting by Beti Bilandzic, Monika Lajhner, Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade and Matt Robinson in Pristina)
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