http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/18/kosovo-serbia-martti-ahtisaari/print
Martti-Ahtisaari
Kosovo state inevitable, says Nobel laureate
* Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
* The Guardian,
* Saturday October 18 2008
* larger | smaller
* Article history
Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari
Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari
during a press conference in London. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president awarded the Nobel peace
prize for his mediation in Kosovo and a string of other conflicts around
the world, said yesterday that Serbia would have no option but to accept
the new Balkan state.
In his first interview with a British newspaper since being named Nobel
laureate last week, Ahtisaari shrugged off the apparent setback to his
work in Kosovo inflicted when Serbia succeeded in having its declaration
of independence referred to the international court of justice.
The 71-year old also argued that it did not matter that the former
Serbian province had been recognised so far by only 51 of the world's
192 countries. That was less important than the economic clout of the
nations that did recognise Kosovo, including the US and most of western
Europe.
"It really doesn't matter if Paraguay hasn't recognised," Ahtisaari
said. "Well over 65% of the wealth of the world has recognised. That
matters."
Ahtisaari was commissioned by the UN in 2005 to find a compromise
solution for Kosovo's status as a way of ending the deadlock that
followed the 1999 war and Nato intervention. His plan for supervised
independence coupled with extensive minority rights for Kosovo's Serb
minority was rejected by Serbia and Russia last year. However, Kosovo -
with western backing - declared independence in February.
Belgrade has vowed never to accept Kosovo's sovereignty, but Ahtisaari
said Serbia would have to relent if it wanted eventual European
membership. "You can't be poking the EU in the eye [while] saying you
want to join EU," he said.
He sent private messages to all parties soon after taking his role as
mediator, that Kosovo's secession was inevitable. "[I said] in light of
what had happened in Kosovo, the return of Kosovo to Serbia is not a
viable option," Ahtisaari said. "So since March 2006 no one should have
had any illusion what my plan was going to be."
Russia furiously opposed Kosovo's independence, and pointed to it as
justification of its own recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
pro-Russian enclaves in Georgia. Ahtisaari rejected the parallel.
"We did Kosovo within the UN framework. In Georgia there was not even an
attempt," he argued. "You cannot go into an independent country and do
whatever you like. Even if you are Russia."
Ahtisaari was also involved in mediating Namibia's independence from
South Africa in 1989, and brokering peace in 2005 between the Indonesian
government and separatists in Aceh. He said the secrets to successful
peacemaking were research, having a clear strategy, and hiring staff who
offer independent thinking. "You don't need a single yes man," he said.
"You have to have colleagues who can challenge your own thinking."
* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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