Dark clouds loom over Kosovo 10 years after independence
PRISTINA: The assassination of a prominent Serb politician has cast another dark cloud above Kosovo as it is prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of its independence.
Unilaterally declared on Feb 17, 2008, the independence of Serbia’s breakaway province is recognised by more than 110 countries.
But Belgrade and many of the 120,000 members of Kosovo’s Serb minority, refuse to do so almost 20 years after the 1990s war.
The conflict pitting Serbian security forces against Kosovo Albanian guerrillas claimed 13,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians.
The January 16 murder of moderate Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic has sparked fresh tensions in the volatile region.
The 64-year-old was shot dead from a car in northern Mitrovica, a Serb-populated part of the ethnically divided flashpoint town.
He was the only top Kosovo Serb politician to have publicly denounced Belgrade’s policies in Kosovo, earning him the label ‘traitor’ from detractors.
The murder, whose perpetrators have not yet been identified, has “the potential to destabilise Kosovo”, political analyst Ramush Tahiri told AFP.
It already prompted the suspension of EU-mediated talks between Serb and Kosovo negotiators, which had been due to resume on the day Ivanovic was killed.
The indefinite halt of discussions “isbadforourcountry,”commented Zeri, one of Kosovo’s leading daily newspapers.
Begun in 2011 under EU auspices, the process of normalising ties has been at a standstill for months. A number of key issues remain yet to be solved including the status of ‘Serb-majority municipalities’.
Tensions already rose in December after lawmakers in Kosovo (population 1.8 million) made a failed bid to scrap a new special court trying ethnic Albanian ex-guerillas suspected of committing war crimes during the 1998-1999 conflict.
The EU-backed tribunal, based in The Hague, is poised to begin issuing indictments.
But senior war veterans of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) have demanded that MPs abolish the law on what they say is a ‘biased’ court.
President Hashim Thaci, the former head of the KLA’s political wing, is rumoured to be among those prosecuted for the alleged kidnapping and disappearance of around 500 civilians, mostly ethnic Serbs.
A brother of Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj is also thought to be under investigation.
Calling the court into question would be “a terrible example of self interest prevailing over the commongoodandKosovo’sinterest as a state,” the US ambassador to Kosovo Greg Delawie said, warning that the move would have ‘harsh consequences’.
It would turn Kosovo into a ‘rogue state’ joining the ranks of North Korea or Iran, according to security expert Lulzim Peci.