INTERVIEW-EU watching Serb vote before tackling north Kosovo
By Matt Robinson
PRISTINA, April 7 (Reuters) - Kosovo's new EU supervisors are watching closely whether pro-Europeans defeat nationalists in Serbia's May election, before deciding how to tackle the Belgrade-backed Serbs in Kosovo's renegade north.
A European Union police force and a civilian office headed by International Civilian Representative Pieter Feith are aiming to be operational by June 15, four months after Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia.
But Serbs in the north are promising to resist, with the backing of nationalist Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Currently the caretaker premier, he is tipped to split with his current pro-Western partners and enter government with ultranationalist hardliners if they win the knife-edge May 11 parliamentary election.
Asked how his office and the 2,000-strong EU police and justice mission planned to take over from the United Nations in the north, Feith told Reuters: "It would be important to see who is coming out of the elections of May 11 as the determining factor for the next government, and we'll take it from there."
"Given the current situation we are in ... we will have to continue to reflect on this and work with Belgrade and the (Kosovo) government on how this is going to be taken forward," he said in an interview on Monday.
But the Dutch diplomat, a former NATO mediator in ethnic Albanian insurgencies in neighbouring Macedonia and southern Serbia, underlined that Kosovo's Western backers would not allow Belgrade to compromise the sovereignty of the new state.
"I would not like to see Belgrade wielding a permanent veto over what happens to Kosovo," said Feith.
"This is an independent, sovereign state, recognised by more than 30 of the most important democracies and economies in the world. We do not see it as a helpful proposition that the sovereignty of Kosovo would be impaired in a way as we see now."
Backed by Russia, Serbia has begun driving deeper the wedge between Kosovo's Albanian-dominated institutions and its 120,000 remaining Serbs -- splitting the police force and encouraging Serbs to boycott almost all other Kosovo institutions.
Feith has accused Belgrade of trying to partition Kosovo along ethnic lines.
NO ALTERNATIVE
One U.N. police officer was killed and dozens of NATO peacekeepers injured in heavy Serb rioting in the northern Serb stronghold of Mitrovica on March 17, one month after Kosovo's Western-backed secession.
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since NATO bombs in 1999 drove out Serb forces to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.
To Kosovo Serbs, Feith's Civilian Office and the EU police force are "occupiers". A preparatory team from his office has already withdrawn from north Mitrovica, under threat of attack.
Feith said he "wouldn't exclude" the possibility of U.N. authorities playing an extended role in the north, but said he did not want to speculate.
Serbia's May election promises to be the most important since the country toppled late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. It will decide whether Serbia pursues a future in the European Union or turns its back on the bloc, which supports Kosovo's 2 million Albanians.
The EU hopes that a government led by President Boris Tadic's Democrats, though also opposed to Kosovo's independence, will be more accommodating towards Feith's EU mission.
"We are aiming at establishing a modern, multiethnic justice system, a multiethnic police, a single legal space for the whole of Kosovo," said Feith. "For that you need Serb cooperation."
Feith last week approved Kosovo's first constitution, which was signed by Kosovo Albanian leaders on Monday, ready for adoption by parliament. It will come into force on June 15.
Feith said the constitution contained all the provisions for the "consolidation of Kosovo as a modern, multi-ethnic state."
He urged Serbs to embrace them, to chose a "government in Belgrade that would give priority to its EU perspective" rather than "look to the past and focus on the injustices".
But he added: "The EU is clear that it does not wish Kosovo to end up as a failed state, or as a frozen conflict. (Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
PRISTINA, April 7 (Reuters) - Kosovo's new EU supervisors are watching closely whether pro-Europeans defeat nationalists in Serbia's May election, before deciding how to tackle the Belgrade-backed Serbs in Kosovo's renegade north.
A European Union police force and a civilian office headed by International Civilian Representative Pieter Feith are aiming to be operational by June 15, four months after Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia.
But Serbs in the north are promising to resist, with the backing of nationalist Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Currently the caretaker premier, he is tipped to split with his current pro-Western partners and enter government with ultranationalist hardliners if they win the knife-edge May 11 parliamentary election.
Asked how his office and the 2,000-strong EU police and justice mission planned to take over from the United Nations in the north, Feith told Reuters: "It would be important to see who is coming out of the elections of May 11 as the determining factor for the next government, and we'll take it from there."
"Given the current situation we are in ... we will have to continue to reflect on this and work with Belgrade and the (Kosovo) government on how this is going to be taken forward," he said in an interview on Monday.
But the Dutch diplomat, a former NATO mediator in ethnic Albanian insurgencies in neighbouring Macedonia and southern Serbia, underlined that Kosovo's Western backers would not allow Belgrade to compromise the sovereignty of the new state.
"I would not like to see Belgrade wielding a permanent veto over what happens to Kosovo," said Feith.
"This is an independent, sovereign state, recognised by more than 30 of the most important democracies and economies in the world. We do not see it as a helpful proposition that the sovereignty of Kosovo would be impaired in a way as we see now."
Backed by Russia, Serbia has begun driving deeper the wedge between Kosovo's Albanian-dominated institutions and its 120,000 remaining Serbs -- splitting the police force and encouraging Serbs to boycott almost all other Kosovo institutions.
Feith has accused Belgrade of trying to partition Kosovo along ethnic lines.
NO ALTERNATIVE
One U.N. police officer was killed and dozens of NATO peacekeepers injured in heavy Serb rioting in the northern Serb stronghold of Mitrovica on March 17, one month after Kosovo's Western-backed secession.
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since NATO bombs in 1999 drove out Serb forces to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.
To Kosovo Serbs, Feith's Civilian Office and the EU police force are "occupiers". A preparatory team from his office has already withdrawn from north Mitrovica, under threat of attack.
Feith said he "wouldn't exclude" the possibility of U.N. authorities playing an extended role in the north, but said he did not want to speculate.
Serbia's May election promises to be the most important since the country toppled late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. It will decide whether Serbia pursues a future in the European Union or turns its back on the bloc, which supports Kosovo's 2 million Albanians.
The EU hopes that a government led by President Boris Tadic's Democrats, though also opposed to Kosovo's independence, will be more accommodating towards Feith's EU mission.
"We are aiming at establishing a modern, multiethnic justice system, a multiethnic police, a single legal space for the whole of Kosovo," said Feith. "For that you need Serb cooperation."
Feith last week approved Kosovo's first constitution, which was signed by Kosovo Albanian leaders on Monday, ready for adoption by parliament. It will come into force on June 15.
Feith said the constitution contained all the provisions for the "consolidation of Kosovo as a modern, multi-ethnic state."
He urged Serbs to embrace them, to chose a "government in Belgrade that would give priority to its EU perspective" rather than "look to the past and focus on the injustices".
But he added: "The EU is clear that it does not wish Kosovo to end up as a failed state, or as a frozen conflict. (Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
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