http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10881289
ECONOMIST (UK) Kosovo's riots Border clashing Mar 19th 2008 This week's violence in northern Kosovo could be a taste of the future AFP Burn, baby, burn WHEN Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on February 17th, the doomsters predicted political turbulence and spasms of violence. A month later their predictions may be coming true. On March 18th United Nations police stormed a courthouse that had been seized by Kosovo Serbs in the north of the divided city of Mitrovica. Scores were injured in the ensuing violence, a Ukrainian policeman was killed and UN vehicles were set alight. The UN personnel were withdrawn but NATO troops remained. The violence was about more than just a courthouse, of course. Veton Surroi, often seen as Kosovo's de facto foreign minister (the new state does not have an official one yet), says it was really about who is in control of Kosovo as the different contenders for power are "fighting for turf". Kosovo has some 2m people, 90% of whom are ethnically Albanian. About 120,000 Serbs remain, half of them in the north. The Albanians have long wanted full independence; Serbia insists that Kosovo must remain Serbian forever. In this stubborn stance, it is backed by Russia. Almost 30 countries have now recognised Kosovo, including America and most European Union countries. When it declared independence Kosovo pledged to stick to a plan first drawn up by Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president. Under this, Serb-populated areas of Kosovo were to have extensive autonomy. Meanwhile the UN mission in Kosovo, which has had jurisdiction ever since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, would after 120 days hand over its authority to Kosovo's government and to two new missions sent by the EU. Carl Bildt, Sweden's foreign minister and an old Balkan hand, sums up the problem: "We don't have a settlement, and the role of the UN remains to be defined." Over the past month diplomats and politicians have been left trying to work out what they are supposed to do, or how much power they can grab. The Serbian authorities are trying to impose full control of Serb-majority areas, which is why they encouraged Mitrovica's Serbs to occupy the courthouse. Serbs have been told to quit Kosovo's police force and other institutions. Few dare disobey; anyone who thinks of it is threatened by fellow Serbs. The EU says that it has begun its 120-day countdown. But the UN mission in Kosovo has been told nothing by its masters in New York and so has no plans to hand over authority. According to a senior EU source in Brussels, the plan now is for the UN's power in Kosovo to be progressively "diluted" and then finished off, "not by design, but rather by default". In the meantime the elected government in what some now call Kosovo proper (ie, the areas controlled by ethnic Albanians) is taking a low-key approach, perhaps to avoid fanning the fires of violence. When calm returns after the Mitrovica clashes, Kosovo will be left with a frozen conflict in which, for now, power will lie with the Serbian authorities in Serb areas and it may be unclear who is in charge elsewhere. This, frets Mr Surroi, will "suck the political energy of Kosovo's society" and distort normal political life for years to come, in both Kosovo and Serbia. He calls it "a dangerous period, and one that requires an urgent response". On May 11th Serbia will hold general and local elections, and fully intends to include Serb areas in Kosovo. This could be the next flashpoint-if one does not erupt earlier.
