Kosovo talks between Serbs and Albanians to start in Vienna

Meeting chaired by Ahtisaari's number two man, Albert Rohan

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Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo are to get together today, Monday, in Vienna to begin direct negotiations over the status of Kosovo.
      This is the first round of negotiations between the two parties since November, when the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed the former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari to head the talks over the final position of Kosovo.
      Formally Kosovo is still part of Serbia, but for the past seven years the United Nations have governed over the province, mostly populated by people of Albanian origin.
      The UN Security Council ruled in November that a resolution has to be reached in this situation.
      Today, the eight-strong delegations from both parties will take their seats around a negotiation table at the Daun-Kinsky Palace in the Austrian capital.
      So far neither side has showed much willingness to compromise. The Albanians want nothing less than total independence. The Serbs, in turn, are dead-set against this idea.
      The Serbs want autonomy for the Kosovar Serbs in the areas of Kosovo where they are a majority, delegation member and Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's advisor Slobodan Samardzic told the news agency AP on Sunday.
     
The negotiations came to nearly a one-month halt when the Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova died in January.
      Ahtisaari hopes for some "concrete progress" from this first round of the negotiations.
      "Before we can tackle the question of the actual status of Kosovo, there are several practical matters to be addressed", Ahtisaari told Helsingin Sanomat recently. "Whatever the final status, the living conditions of the minority groups have to improve."
      Monday's negotiations will not deal with Kosovo's judicial status. Instead, the aim is to discuss the decentralisation of administration. The question is immensely broad: it covers the health care and educational systems, the organising of the judicial system and the police force, plus agreeing on cultural and language issues.
      The negotiations are led by Ahtisaari's number two man, Austrian diplomat Albert Rohan.
      Countries such as the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France, who follow the progress in the Kosovo talks with a great deal of interest, hope the area's position will be determined by the end of the year.
     
Of the two million residents of the Kosovo province, an estimated 100,000 are Serbs.
      They live in isolation in communities scattered around the province, protected by the NATO-led peacekeeping forces.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Serbian President meets Ahtisaari, proposes division of Kosovo (25.11.2005)
  UN envoy Ahtisaari opposes time limit for Kosovo talks (14.11.2005)
  UN special envoy Ahtisaari begins Kosovo mission (22.11.2005)
  UN Security Council confirms Ahtisaari appointment to Kosovo post (11.11.2005)
  Kofi Annan appoints President Ahtisaari to lead Kosovo talks (2.11.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat