Word: ahtisaari
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Serbian province of Kosovo, whose 2 million people are predominantly ethnic Albanians and want independence, has been administered as a U.N. protectorate since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign forced Serbian withdrawal in 1999. Now, U.N.'s special envoy Marti Ahtisaari has proposed de facto independence under European Union supervision for Kosovo, with a view to subsequently integrating both it and Serbia into the EU. Ahtisaari's plan is backed by the U.S. and NATO countries, but Russia strongly objects to what it describes as a dangerous precedent for separatists elsewhere. And as an historical ally of Serbia, Russia cannot...
...then, Kosovo has been ruled by U.N. administrators while formally remaining a part of Serbia. Now this largely symbolic bond is about to be severed, but that doesn't mean the people of Kosovo will be free from foreign rule: according to the plan, devised by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, the European Union's office in Pristina will have broad powers to keep local politicians in line, both in internal and external affairs, much as in Bosnia (which is also nominally independent and internationally recognized). Furthermore, some 30,000 nato troops will remain in the province, while Kosovo will...
While most ethnic Albanian leaders are ready to accept token independence over the status quo, some are already grumbling that Ahtisaari's plan falls far short of their expectations. Albin Kurti, the leader of the pro-independence Self-Determination movement, warned that "Ahtisaari's proposal does nothing for Kosovo's independence, state system and sovereignty" - and called for its rejection. Kurti's movement, which intends to stage a series of anti-plan protests, is backed by hard-line veterans of the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, a guerrilla force that waged a ruthless war against Serbs. In the short run, Kurti...
...Ahtisaari plan comes at a bad time for Serbia. It is swinging between pro-reformist forces who are aware that the loss of Kosovo is inevitable (but daren't say so for fear of losing votes) and hard-line populist "patriots" who find the general frustration over Kosovo a fertile ground for their merchandise - and whose ascent to power would push Serbia deeper into confrontation and misery. I do not dare predict which of the two sides will prevail...
What the Albanians (who think Ahtisaari's proposal gives them too little) and Serbs (who grieve that it takes away too much) don't seem to understand is how little real change independence will bring to people's ordinary lives, and how many of the present problems will remain. Kosovo will not fly to Venus and Serbia to Mars, no matter what diplomats agree in New York City, Brussels and Moscow. The truly lasting solution will be reached only when Serbs and ethnic Albanians sit down together and work it out among themselves. That will not happen soon...