In an interview regarding the opening of a new negotiation process between Belgrade and Prishtina facilitated by UNMIK, Lamberto Zannier, said that, ‘being neutral towards status, I am not going to open negotiations for issues that are connected with status. There are no more negotiations for status, this is not my mandate.”
The specific issues for which Zannier is negotiating
deal with policing, courts, borders, customs and sites of religious and
cultural heritage. In an independent state, these would be domestic
issues and definitely not the concern of any other state. The very fact
that Serbia is able to influence the shape of the policing or legal
system inside Kosova demonstrates that these issues do relate to
Kosova’s status.
The actual plans for which Zannier is negotiating – do not forget that UNMIK is supposed to be ‘neutral’ towards status – undermine Kosova’s fragile independence and survival as a functioning state because they create an entirely autonomous entity within Kosova with no links to Kosova’s central institutions. This is exactly what Serbia wants. It will provide the evidence that so far she is lacking, to demonstrate to states who are not sure whether to recognize Kosova, that independence will cause instability in the Balkans.
Zannier’s negotiations are based on the plan outlined by Ban Ki-moon in his letter to Boris Tadić, 12th June 2008. The only authority which this autonomous entity will recognize will be UNMIK on the basis of Resolution 1244 and Serbia, via the parallel structures. On this basis, it is not foreseen that UNMIK will ever leave Kosova. It will remain to oversee its latest political experiment: the management of a country which it has partitioned institutionally on an ethnic basis. When its experiment fails, it will be Kosova and Albanians who will be blamed, not the international community or Serbia, who devised this plan.
The actual plans for which Zannier is negotiating – do not forget that UNMIK is supposed to be ‘neutral’ towards status – undermine Kosova’s fragile independence and survival as a functioning state because they create an entirely autonomous entity within Kosova with no links to Kosova’s central institutions. This is exactly what Serbia wants. It will provide the evidence that so far she is lacking, to demonstrate to states who are not sure whether to recognize Kosova, that independence will cause instability in the Balkans.
Zannier’s negotiations are based on the plan outlined by Ban Ki-moon in his letter to Boris Tadić, 12th June 2008. The only authority which this autonomous entity will recognize will be UNMIK on the basis of Resolution 1244 and Serbia, via the parallel structures. On this basis, it is not foreseen that UNMIK will ever leave Kosova. It will remain to oversee its latest political experiment: the management of a country which it has partitioned institutionally on an ethnic basis. When its experiment fails, it will be Kosova and Albanians who will be blamed, not the international community or Serbia, who devised this plan.
Whilst demanding on the one hand that Kosova celebrate its
multi-ethnicity and repress expression of its dominant Albanian
identity, the UN is now seeking that its institutions should be
mono-ethnic and separate from Kosova’s central institutions. Justice in
Kosova will now be experienced and administered on an ethnic basis.
Serbs will be policed by Serbs, who report to the UN and Albanians will
be policed by Albanians, who report to EULEX and the Kosova
institutions.
Ban Ki-Moon’s letter to Tadić agreed that, ‘Kosova Police operating in
relevant Serb majority areas should report to international police
under the overall authority of my special representative.’ Zannier
explained with relation to negotiations about the police that, “there
is maybe room to work towards offering a higher autonomy to what I
would define as an ethnic police, a police, who belong to a certain
ethnic group, and who should have a bigger autonomy within the existing
system here.”
It is not only the police service which will be constructed on an
ethnic basis, but the courts. Ban Ki-moon’s letter stated that,
‘additional local and district courts serving relevant Serb majority
areas may be created. They will operate within a Kosovo court system
under the applicable law within the framework of Resolution 1244
(1999).’
The segregation of our justice system on an ethnic basis is contrary to
the principle of equality of all individuals before the law. It is also
being used as a cover by Serbia to maintain her influence within
Kosova. Serbs will be segregated into a separate system of law and
order and separated from Kosova’s institutions by the international
community, but at Serbia’s request in order to institutionalize
partition.
Vetevendosje (self-determination) Movement opposes international administration of Kosova.
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