Symbolic Talks on Kosovo Undermined

14/10/2003| IslamWeb

Groundbreaking talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders are proving problematic even before they begin today. A Serbian delegation only agreed to attend at the last minute, and Kosovo's Prime Minister has boycotted the summit in the Austrian capital. The Kosovo delegation will be headed by President Ibrahim Rugova, a veteran ethnic Albanian pacifist. Those staying away say it is too early to meet. It is the first time Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders have come together since the 1999 war. The summit has a modest agenda, the leaders will negotiate issues such as transport, energy and refugee return to Kosovo. Ethnic Albanian demands for independence will not be discussed. The talks will be headed by top United Nations official in Kosovo, Harri Holkeri. As he set off from the province's capital, Pristina, the former Finnish Prime Minister lamented the lack of broad representation at the meeting. The scaled down summit is to be held in Vienna. The talks have got the backing of the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. But even the big four's support is not enough to mend the bitter rifts dividing the two sides in some parts of the Province. Mitrovica is a poignant reminder of that enmity. During the four years Kosovo has been under UN rule, ethnic violence has frequently flared. Many people there believe the meeting in Vienna will amount to nothing. Four years after the province came under UN and NATO control, only a handful of some 200,000 Serbs and non-Albanians who fled Kosovo in fear of revenge attacks have returned to their homes. Some 80,000 remain in enclaves protected by the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR, with limited movement in areas dominated by the Albanian majority. And four years after the war, some 3,700 people, mostly Kosovo Albanians, are still missing from the war four years ago. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Destroyed mosque by Serbian forces, Kosovo.