Mr Marti Ahtisaari's plan for Kosovo cannot be called perfect, but it reflects the stand of the international community on the issue, says Kosovar journalist Krenar Gashi for Bulgarian Post. "If the UN Security Council does not approve the plan, countries will have to deal with the issue of recognizing Kosovo as an independant state individually", adds he.

How do you evaluate Mr Marti Ahtisaari's plan on the future of Kosovo? Is the announced „formal sovereignity“ for the region the right key for stabilisation?

The UN plan for Kosovo’s political status presented by Martti Ahtisaari, is a comprehensive compromise solution between the demands of Kosovo Albanians for independence and offer made by Serbia’s government for autonomy. The plan tries to satisfy both parties involved and it is based on the current reality in Kosovo. It foresees the “de facto” independence for Kosovo, with international supervision and with wide priorities given to minority issues, especially those of the Serb ethnic minority living in Kosovo. Although the plan can not be rated as perfect, it reflects the standings of the international community on Kosovo’s status.

The plan does not explicitly state that Kosovo is independent. Do you think that the Kosovar government will try and make moves toward such independance?

Kosovo’s politicians declared that they will see the proposal with “the eye of a critic”. However, the upcoming meetings that may occur will not leave a lot of space for any party involved to make any steps that would lead to radical changes of the proposal. I do not believe that the international community would explicitly give “independence to Kosovo due to lack of consensus between the countries of the so called Contact Group, especially having in mind Russia’s stands.

On the other hand, with Serbia rejecting the proposal in general, I believe that Kosovo’s politicians will even rush to accept the proposal thus trying to settle the process down. It is on their interest to finish the status process very soon, also because of the internal pressures that are rising. If things don’t get settled in a short period of time, people who are already confused will be loosing their patience and may join the radical groups that are already protesting against Ahtisaari.

Serbia's immediate reaction was rejection of the proposals of the UN's Special Envoy. Do you think that the new Serbian government (although its composition is not yet clear) will be willing to change this position?

There are various scenarios that can happen to the process. Serbia’s rejection and Kosovo’s acceptance of the proposal would be a “déjà vu” story from the 1999, when in Rambouillet the Kosovo delegation signed an agreement that was then rejected by Milosevic. At that time, this gesture of Serbian government pushed the international military intervention to Kosovo. This time it may force the UN Security Council to adopt the next resolution for Kosovo by ignoring Serbia. If one such resolution doesn’t pass, due to Russia’s veto, then countries would have to deal with the issue of recognizing Kosovo as an independent state individually.

Having in mind the results of the elections in Serbia, where the Radical Party (SRS) ended up to gain most votes from all other parties, I don’t believe any future government will take any step to change the initial position set up by President Boris Tadic.

So far, UN and EU will not be withdrawing its military and civilian personnel from Kosovo. Do you think that with the implementation of the plan the end of the international presence there is in sight?

The upcoming EU mission in Kosovo will be a supervising body and not administrating one. This is a crucial difference. Although the International Civilian Office, ICO, will have the power to discharge high officials and adopted laws, it will not directly administrate and govern Kosovo. Thus people will see it in a different way.

On the other hands, Kosovars never opposed the idea of having international military presence in their territory. The international troops are seen as a factor of security, stability and protection, and they will be wanted to stay there even after Kosovo will gain its full sovereignty and have its own army.

One of the key elements of the plan is the intended dissolution of the Kosovo Protection Corps, comprised mainly of former members of the anti-Serbian resistance. How will this affect the stability of the region?

The plan is a compromise solution thus there are many issues that can affect the stability due to parties dissatisfaction. Transforming KPS to another troop with only 2500 members is one of them. Having in mind that most of the KPS soldiers were former fighters with Kosovo Liberation Army, the dissatisfaction among those who will remain out of the new force will be very high and difficult to deal with. I sincerely hope that Kosovo government and the Team of Unity (negotiating team) will know how to approach to this problem. This would be by recruiting them into different organizations so that they don’t remain jobless and with further negotiating to increase the number of the new Kosovo Security Force (KSF) to be formed.

The plan must be approved by the Security Council of the UN. Considering the strong support of Russia for the Serbian territorial integrity, do you think that the whole process might be blocked?

There are two opposite processes. First, Ahtisaari received the support of the Contact Group, the group of great powers including Russia, for his proposal. Second, Serbia also received Russia’s support, but for their stands and their stands are that the proposal is unacceptable. Considering this, I don’t think that Russians would go that far to use the veto in the UN Security Council, or, should I put it better, I don’t think that the Contact Group will put the proposal to the UN SC without being sure that Russia is not going to block the process. Of course this will require additional time and work.

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