Oct 16, 2006

Kosova: Early Serbian Elections Could Delay Status Proposal


A proposal on the future status of Kosovo could be delayed if Serbia holds early elections this year, the deputy United Nations envoy to the status talks said.

A proposal on the future status of Kosovo could be delayed if Serbia holds early elections this year, the deputy United Nations envoy to the status talks said Friday according to a report by an Austrian news agency.

Albert Rohan, attending a conference in Lower Austria that was closed to the media, said if Serbia holds elections before the end of the year, completion of the Kosovo status question could be delayed until February or March 2007, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Serbian parliamentary elections could be held as early as December but no date has been set.

The government also plans to hold a referendum on Oct. 28-29 on a new constitution that declares the independence-seeking province of Kosovo is an integral part of Serb territory.

Chief U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari is expected to present his proposal to the U.N. Security Council in the coming months. Earlier this week, he said he sees no solution in the talks on the status of Kosovo because the two sides are too divided.

Rohan echoed those comments Friday saying in remarks quoted by APA that "further negotiations don't make sense unless we get signals from one side that it is ready to make concessions."

In an interview with The Associated Press in London on Thursday, Kosovo's prime minister, Agim Ceku, said the province was eager for an agreement on its future status by the end of the year and that it would not accept any settlement that did not include independence.

Kosovo, formally a Serbian province, has been run by the United Nations and NATO since a 1999 war. The United States and the Contact Group for Kosovo, which includes Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, have sought to wrap up talks on the province's future by the end of the year.

But the negotiations, which started early this year, have produced no result, with both sides entrenched in their positions — the ethnic Albanians demanding independence from Serbia and Belgrade offering broad autonomy but no independence.