Nearly eight years ago, NATO (without Security Council approval) began its bombing campaign to expel Serb forces from Kosovo.
The UN has been trying to figure out what to do with Kosovo ever since it took over administering the province in 1999. That process may soon be coming to an end – sort of. As many expected, the UN will likley back “supervised independence” for Kosovo, reports Reuters:
A U.N. blueprint on the final status of Serbia’s U.N.-run province of Kosovo, which diplomats say will open the door to independence, will be ready on January 21, a United Nations spokesman said on Thursday…. A Western diplomat told the Austrian daily Die Presse on Thursday that it was increasingly likely [UN envoy] Ahtisaari’s blueprint would recommend “supervised independence.” Diplomats have said for months that the United States and its major European allies favor independence, supervised by the European Union and a NATO force of currently 17,000 soldiers. But Russian backing for Serbia, which says autonomy is the most it can offer a region which was once the heart of the medieval Serb kingdom, is complicating efforts to decide the issue at the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow holds a veto…. Kosovo media reports say the document, to appease Russia, will fall short of recommending independence but clear the decks for individual states to recognize Kosovo…. NATO peacekeepers and U.N. police are braced for unrest as a decision nears, and a possible exodus by some of Kosovo’s 100,000 remaining Serbs if the decision goes against them.
Sustained and robust engagement by the US and EU will be critical to Kosovo’s economic and political success. We should remember that instability in Kosovo wouldn’t stay in Kosovo for long.
