Serbia Rejects Ahitsaari Kosovo Plan

Serbian political parties closed ranks on Wednesday behind a parliamentary resolution opposing independence of Kosovo.

Serbian political parties closed ranks on Wednesday behind a parliamentary resolution opposing what looks like the inevitable march to independence this year of the breakaway province of Kosovo.

The first session of parliament after an inconclusive Jan. 21 election was expected to adopt the motion, which rejects a plan by United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari giving Kosovo a form of independence under European Union supervision.

It says Serbia rejects all points of the plan "which violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the country.

"We must defend Kosovo and we'll defend it in talks as long as there is any sense in talking," said Tomislav Nikolic, deputy head of the ultranationalist Radical Party, Serbia's strongest.

But analysts say the declaration amounts to no more than a fig leaf, meant to share the blame for the impending loss of the province that is steeped in Serb history but now peopled by 90 percent ethnic Albanians demanding to be free of Belgrade.

Parliament will also mandate a negotiating team for a last round of U.N.-mediated talks with Kosovo Albanian leaders next week in Vienna, although no one expects a breakthrough.

Kosovo's Albanian majority has demanded its own state since 1999 when NATO bombs drove out the forces of late Serb autocrat Slobodan Milosevic accused of ethnic cleansing while fighting separatist guerrillas. The U.N. has run the province since.

"This is not the Serbia of Milosevic," Bozidar Djelic of the Democratic Party told Reuters.

"We want Serbia to be part of the European Union, part of the world. But we cannot do anything else but defend the unity of our motherland, in particular Kosovo."

SHARE THE BLAME

The resolution said "imposed independence" for Kosovo would have unforeseeable consequences, destabilise the region and "represent an exceptionally dangerous precedent for resolving minority issues and territorial disputes" globally.

"This is more about trying to make it so that no one bears responsibility and less about seeking a solution," said Dusan Janjic, head of the non-governmental Forum on Ethnic Relations.

The wording must satisfy parties which, while loosely grouped as "pro-Western", have divergent views on Kosovo.

Outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica wants to curtail ties with states that recognise Kosovo as independent. The Democrats of President Boris Tadic oppose this because it would alienate the United States and the EU.

Under the Ahtisaari plan, a Security Council resolution on Kosovo would be followed by a four-month transition period. The EU would take over supervision from the United Nations and Kosovo would declare independence and seek recognition.

"I don't have a date in mind, but I do think things will go very quickly," Ahtisaari told Le Monde last Friday.

Former U.S. ambassador to Serbia William Montgomery says Serbian leaders determined to "save" Kosovo believe they must remain united to count on Russian support and a Russian veto of any independence resolution in the Security Council.

The aim of Wednesday's vote "will be to lock virtually all parties into the process" to ensure they share equal blame for Kosovo's loss, he wrote in the daily Danas at the weekend.