Healing Kosovo
The Boston Globe
Published: November 5, 2006
The war that drove the Serbian forces of Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo seven
years ago is not much remembered today, but the nation- building mission
international actors have undertaken in that breakaway region of Serbia is now
approaching a fateful turning point. Getting Kosovo's future right is crucial
for stability in the Balkans, for the process of European Union enlargement,
and for relations among Muslims and Christians across the continent. What
happens to Kosovo may also influence ethnic minorities in multiethnic states
such as Russia, Iraq and Sri Lanka who form a majority in one region and want
to secede and become a majority in a new independent state.
The United Nations Special Envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, is
poised to present a proposal on the region's final status that is likely to
leave maximalists among both Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and its Serb
minority dissatisfied. Even the timing of Ahtisaari's presentation is
controversial, with some EU representatives wanting to delay it until after
elections in Serbia that are expected before the end of the year. The logic of
such a delay is politically sound. It assumes that even a protracted UN-backed
process leading to some form of independence for Kosovo will provoke voters in
Serbia to support hard-line nationalists in the forthcoming elections.
So it makes sense to wait a month or two before undraping a final- status plan
for Kosovo that both Albanian Kosovars and Serbs will see as an imposed
solution. With so much invested in the rehabilitation of Kosovo, care must be
taken to prevent political passions from wrecking the construction of a
peaceful and stable Kosovo.
Toward that end, a successful UN prescription for Kosovo ought to include
strong guarantees of minority rights. This will be crucial. The new Kosovo will
have to be constructed as a multiethnic state in which not only Serbs but
Bosnian Muslims, Turks and other minorities are protected. To answer the
anxieties of Serbs who are concentrated in the north of Kosovo, the new state
must also be truly decentralized. And there must be cooperation with the
Serbian Orthodox Church in safeguarding religious and historical sites in
Kosovo that are cherished by Serbs everywhere.
Today in Opinion
Blinding Americans on Iraq
The neighborhood bully
Healing Kosovo
The 1999 war to liberate Kosovo can be counted a success only if the postwar
work of nation-building is done right.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/05/opinion/edkosovo.php
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