Democracy should remain EU dealbreaker for Kosovo

Date: 15/04/04

EU POLICYMAKERS should not abandon their insistence that democracy be nourished in Kosovo before its final status can be decided, leading Balkans expert Carl Bildt has said.

The former Swedish premier, who was the UN's envoy to the Balkans in the 1990s, argued that any weakening of the 'standards before status' call would be a capitulation to those instrumental in last month's violent clashes between ethnic Serbs and Albanians in the disputed territory. The fighting left 28 dead and about 600 wounded.

"I previously argued that deferral of the status issue would only make things worse," Bildt told European Voice.

"But now I believe is not the time to deal with the status issue because that would amount to rewarding violence, giving in to ethnic cleansing."

He berated Kosovar Albanian politicians for not speaking out with sufficient vigour against attacks on Serb homes and Orthodox churches. "The Kosovar Albanian leadership has to make Kosovo safe for Kosovars. Elementary standards and the application of a multi-ethnic society is not something for after-dinner speeches, when you have foreign visitors.

"It is something for everyday life in towns and villages."

Bildt also called on the international community to pay greater heed to the plight of refugees uprooted by the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia.

"You have roughly half a million refugees in Serbia, one quarter of a million from Kosovo, the other quarter of a million primarily from Croatia. This is the biggest refugee population in any European country. If we are not seen as being responsive to their needs, there is a risk that this will feed into nationalist sentiment."

Report of comments by Carl Bildt, former UN envoy to the Balkans in the 1990s, about the situation in Kosovo.