Serbia and Kosovo

What is Offered in Negotiations

AIM Belgrade, 18 March, 1998

Nrgotiating platforms are certainly incomparably better than sniper or cannon ones. However, it was necessary that the terrible bloodshed in Drenica happen in the end of February and the beginning of March and more than eighty persons be killed for the international community to threaten with re-introduction of economic sanctions, and for both the authorities and that which still declares itself as opposition in Serbia rouse up and forumulate and offer their platforms on Kosovo.

As soon as the ministers of the Contact Group had made their ultimatum public (9 March) in the basis of which is the beginning of peaceful negotiations of the authorities in Belgrade and the political leaders of Kosovo Albanians within the next ten days, the Yugoslav Left (JUL) came out with its fundamental stands on the problems of the province. In five items, it states that Kosovo is an internal issue of Serbia, that each sovereign state fights against terrorism by all possible means, and that a dialogue should be established and acceptable solutions sought within the constitutional and legal system of the country.

A day later, the government of Serbia also came up with its platform which does not significantly differ from that of JUL. But, it went a step further. It declared that the police action in Drenica was primarily aimed at neutralising terrorism the victims of which were both the Serbs and the Albanians, it announced that it would permit the Red Cross or another organization to investigate the circumstances in which it had taken place, stressed that it had already offered constructive proposals (retuurn of Albanian students to schools) and addressed an invitation via the official TV and press to "the responsible representatives of the Albanian minority" to begin talks on all open questions.

Indeed, the negotiating team of the government and the assembly of Serbia showed up in Pristina, with vice prime minister Ratko Markovic at its head and a few ministers and leaders of clubs of deputies of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) Tomislav Nikolic and that of JUL Milovan Bojovic. The essence of what this delegation intends to offer to political leaders of Kosovo Albanians was formulated by Ratko Markovic: "The state of Serbia is ready to incorporate in its constitutional and legal system everything that is a modern achievement in exercising the rights of ethnic minorities - I mean the rights in the sphere of language, script, religion, school system, information, maintenance of links with the parent state, use of ethnic symbols and similar".

Political leaders of Kosovo Albanians have remained cool, calm and collected, and did not show up not even for the fourth time in the provincial administration premises where the said delegation was waiting for them. Various reasons for their failure to appear were given. After the first statement of the president of the Democratic League of Kosovo (DSK) Ibrahim Rugova that the only thing that could be discussed was acquiring of independence of Kosovo, other, considerably more "diplomatic" explanations arrived.

It seems that the key explanation is that of Azem Vlasi, former president of the socialist autonomous province of Kosovo, given in a letter to the government of Serbia. He states that for seven years already the authorities in Belgrade were refusing talks and that the "sudden, hasty, improvised invitation to talks at the time convenient for you, after an inapproriate invitation is in fact an attempt to impose certain limitations in the very start aimed at achieving propagandist effects and preventing a dialogue of equals". Vlasi concludes that a dialogue is impossible because Serbian ministry of the interior is still keeping Drenica in a bloackade and advocating consistent implementation of conclusions of the Contact Group. But, two elements are essential in his letter. First, Vlasi insists that the invitation to talks must be addressed to "Ibrahim Rugova who has our electoral mandate and legitimacy, together with the coordinating body of political parties, to determine the composition and the level of Albanian representatives". The second refers to conditions for the talks.

Vlasi writes that the dialogue cannot be limited by the framework of the Constitution of Serbia "baceuse that very constitutional system and the framwork was imposed on the Albanians after the forcible abolishment of the autonomy in 1989 and 1990", but also that "the option of independent and sovereign Kosovo, which the Albanians declared themselves in favour of at the referendum after the forcible eradication of the constitutional autonomy and dissolution of former SFRY should not be taken as a condition for entering the dialogue, but it cannot be rejected in advance as one of the options either". In this context, he declares himself in favour of mediation of the international community - "this role should be given to Felipe Gonsales who has already been named by the special envoy of OSCE for Kosovo". Vlasi's letter is understood by some as "legalisation" of the attempt to resolve the status of the province as that of the third federal unit within FR Yugoslavia as a minimum the Albanians are ready to accept.

Vlasi's letter, for the time being, can be interpreted as a formulation of the Albanian starting point for negotiations and as an attempt to determine real intentions of Belgrade. Indeed, that what Ratko Markovic is saying cannot hold in the long run is confirmed by the publicised Platform on Kosovo of the Serb Revival Movement (SPO). Kosovo is also an integral part of Serbia in it. According to it, the broadest autonomy "in accordance with the highest democratic standards determined by documents of the UN and the OSCE" should be implemented through two-chamber municipal assemblies in order to "prevent any outvoting when cultural, religious and any other and anybody's ethnic rights are concerned". The actual content of this autonomy would be determined through negotiations. The provincial assembly would also consist of two chambers - the chamber of citizens and the chamber of nations. In its proposal, the SPO accepts mediation of Felipe Gonsales and demands that president of Serbia Milan Milutinovic begins talks with heads of all parliamentary parties in order to adopt a joint national platform on Kosovo.

Apart from the Serb Revival Movement, the Socialist Party of Serbia has also announced its platform on Kosovo, and news has arrived that Gonsales has also gathered an expert team with the same intention. In this context, a "Spanish formula" is mentioned, that is, seeking of a solution according to the model of provinces with a "special status" (Catalunya, Basque provinces, Galicia).

In any case, negotiating platforms have, for the time being, won primacy over arms. But, if they remain nothing but a means to buy time, the gap in Kosovo might in the future be bridged only by infantry and artillery ammunition of various calibres. And then it would be irrelevant whether from cannon or machine-gun platforms...

Philip Schwarm

(AIM)