On eve of Kosovar independence, Serbia cools toward West, but doesn't fight
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PRISTINA, Kosovo: As Kosovo prepared to declare its independence Sunday, the Serbian president, Boris Tadic, vowed he would never recognize an independent Kosovo, indicating that Belgrade would downgrade, but not necessarily break, diplomatic relations with any government that recognized Pristina.
"I will never give up the fight for our Kosovo," Tadic, a moderate, said Friday as he was formally sworn in for a new five-year term, giving the clearest indication yet that the independence declaration would not be met by violence or war. He said bilateral ties with countries that recognized Kosovo would be circumscribed, but added that a possible decision by Belgrade to withdraw ambassadors would "not mean it would stop communicating with those countries or cut ties with those countries."
Kosovo, a territory of two million people, has been under United Nations protection and policed by 16,000 North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops after NATO intervened in 1999 to halt Slobodan Milseovic's repression of the territory's ethnic Albanians, who make up 95 percent of the province's population. The independence of the poor, predominantly Muslim territory would mark the final stage of the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia. It is supported by a majority of European Union countries and Washington, but is vehemently opposed by Serbia and its ally Russia.
In war-torn Pristina, pre-independence excitement began to overtake the capital Friday as hundreds of ethnic Albanians from around the world flooded into the city to celebrate what for many has been a long and bloody struggle for self-determination. Smiling Albanian border guards welcomed visitors to "our soon-to-be independent country," while hotels erected billboards offering discounts to citizens from countries that recognized an independent Kosovo.
"I waited my whole life for this," said Mildim Ukehaxaj, an Albanian from the Bronx, who traveled with his family from New York for the independence celebrations. "I lost a brother in the war. We all did. Independence means we know we can come to our homeland and be safe."
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In Belgrade, the mood was defiant but resigned. The nationalist prime minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, who this week told Serbs that their country was about to be illegally severed, lashed out Friday at Western nations that had backed Kosovo's independence aspirations. On Thursday, the government adopted a resolution declaring any unilateral act by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership to be invalid and illegal. Serbs have regarded Kosovo as their heartland since medieval times.
Officials in Belgrade said the government had adopted a secret plan of retaliation when Kosovo declared independence, including steps to encourage the province's 125,000 Serbs to ignore the declaration and keep their territories under de facto Serbian control.
Fears are growing in Kosovo's segregated Serbian enclaves in the north of the territory, where Serbs live surrounded by Albanians, that independence could revive ethnic resentments. Catholic Relief Services said it was preparing for a sudden outflow of Serbs from northern Kosovo and had installed soup kitchens in Mitrovica, a city in northern kosovo, divided between Serbs in the north and Albanians in the south.
Serb officials in Pristina said they expected thousands of Serbs in Kosovo's north to take to the streets in protest Monday, but senior European Union officials said they were not expecting violence, nor a mass exodus of Serbs.
"Things are tense, we are waiting to see what happens. Many people don't want to leave their homes, but they also don't want to live in a Kosovo that is not part of Serbia," said Negosava Mrdakovic, a Serb UN official, who herself lives in an enclave not far from Pristina.
In Brussels, EU diplomats were hard at work Friday on how to respond to Kosovo's expected independence declaration, and were drafting a statement that would commit the bloc to eventually offering EU membership and financial aid to both Kosovo and Serbia. Senior EU officials said they expected Kosovo's independence declaration to be recognized initially by France, Germany, Britain and the United States, with other EU countries following suit.
The EU remains divided over Kosovo, and diplomats said that it would be hard to get several countries - including Spain, Greece, Romania and Cyprus - to sign the EU declaration Monday. These countries fear that Kosovo's unilateral declaration will spur secessionist movements in their own territories.
Even with the EU's internal splits, diplomats said the EU was preparing to give final approval for an 1,800-strong police and judicial mission that will help Kosovo's government administer its new country after the United Nations leaves.
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