MINELRES: BalkanHR: RFE/RL: UN Chief in Kosova Wants Minority Issues Taken on Their Own

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Fri Aug 26 16:50:21 2005


Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>


RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 159, Part II, 23 August 2005

UN CHIEF IN KOSOVA WANTS MINORITY ISSUES TAKEN ON THEIR OWN TERMS...
Soren Jessen-Petersen, who heads the UN civilian administration in
Kosova (UNMIK), told RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages
Service in Prishtina on 22 August that the future of ethnic
minorities in Kosova is one of the toughest issues involved in
defining the province's final status (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22
August 2005, and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 7 January and 20 May 2005).
He argued that the first part of the problem is that the
representatives of the Serbian minority are not willing to take part
in the negotiating process. He added that it is difficult to make
progress on issues relating to minorities if they themselves do not
participate. Jessen-Petersen said that the second aspect is that both
Belgrade and Prishtina have come to link the question of minorities
with that of the province's final status, on which the two sides have
very different interests. This applies to issues like
decentralization as well as to the return of displaced persons and
refugees. The tendency of the main parties involved in the process to
establish such a link makes it very difficult to register progress in
talks on minority-related issues, he added. PM


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