UN mission says it's too early to set deadline for resolution
A 15-strong delegation of UN ambassadors returned on April 30 to New York after a six-day mission aimed at assessing the situation in Kosova. Speaking in Prishtina on April 28, at the end of three days in Serbia and Kosova, Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke told journalists that the members of the UN Security Council should now be able to discuss a resolution on the future of Kosova "with a lot of serenity, with a lot of coolness, with a...mind-set of no nonsense." The ambassadors felt "there is enough potential for mutual confidence and cooperation to indeed aim at what is the collective aim of the international community for Kosovo; that is, to make it a multiethnic society." He added that the Kosovar Serbs showed their "belief in the future of Kosovo, but that still we will have to work on further confidence and willingness to work together for a multiethnic society." He refused to give any hint of the positions of the individual members of the mission. He also refused to indicate when a resolution will be put forward, saying that "important issues should never be hostage to predetermined deadlines" and that "space and time" is needed "in order for all the partners of the Security Council to feel at ease with the solution." In contrast to claims by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica that the mission opens up a "completely new phase" in talks and signifies the rejection of the blueprint presented by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, Verbeke simply said the members of the Security Council came to Kosova in order "to bridge the gap between what we learn and know in New York...and then the realities here in Kosovo," continuing: "Not that there is a gap, in terms of differences, but that it enables us better to see what these concepts exactly mean" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," April 25, 2007). The mission's itinerary included meetings with UN administrators and NATO commanders operating in Kosova; Serbia's president and prime minister; Kosova's president, prime minister, and members of parliament; representatives of the Serbian Orthodox and Catholic churches and the Muslim community in Kosova; as well as with leaders of the ethnic Serbian and Albanian communities, and representatives of the Romany, Turkish, and other minorities. // Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. RFE/RL
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