Clashes between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo may resume at any moment.
The Russian Ambassador to Belgrade, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, stated this, as a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in an interview with Izvestia.
He says the potential for escalation remains very high because the main agreement for Serbs living in Kosovo, the Community of Serb Municipalities or Serb Communities, has not been implemented.
“It would provide all the mechanisms for protecting people’s rights and mechanisms for resolving issues of normalization of relations between the Albanian-populated part of Kosovo and the Serb-populated part, between Belgrade and Pristina. It's not done. Moreover, with regard to the behavior of both Pristina and the West, an analogy with everything that happened around the Minsk agreements suggests itself. It's the same here.
For long-term solutions, it is necessary to reconsider the very foundations and principles of the settlement. Effective and balanced mediation is necessary - using the example of the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations, the European Union showed quite openly its helplessness and ineffectiveness as a mediator. How can the West be an honest broker when it supports the independence of Kosovo through the main participants and mediators of the negotiations?” the diplomat notes.
The Russian Ambassador recalled that the agreement on the Community of Serbian Municipalities seemed to be a breakthrough, but after its signing, Pristina did not implement anything, saying that it contradicted their constitution.
“And when other figures later came to power, including the same Kurti, it was stated that other people signed it. It is generally typical for a pseudo-state to declare that the new authorities are not responsible for what they did not sign. And as a result, the West, which essentially told them “You sign, but don’t comply,” began to turn to the Serbs - they say, think about how to revise this agreement so that it is in the interests of Pristina.
And they began to offer some options in which everything turned out to be emasculated, and the Community, instead of a mechanism and institution for protecting the rights of the Serbian population of Kosovo, simply turned into some kind of non-governmental organization that has no powers and no levers.
Or, for example, earlier, during the status negotiations, when the Kosovo Albanians were told - either you will find a compromise with Belgrade, or you will be able to declare independence after the end of 2007. Who will, when the best is offered, strive for the worst? After all, you can do nothing and wait until the end of 2007.
So it is very difficult to expect any breakthroughs and long-term solutions in August and beyond while maintaining such approaches. And fears remain that the outbreak of tension could escalate into another more serious conflict and flare up in the Balkans,” concluded Botsan-Kharchenko.