Posted on 03/08/2008 10:45:35 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Sweden's foreign minister said Saturday that the United Nations will have to stay in Kosovo to act as a buffer between nations that recognize Kosovo's statehood and those that do not.
Carl Bildt said the U.N., European Union and NATO would need to adjust their plans in Kosovo after the U.N. was sidelined last month when Kosovo declared independence, due to a deadlock caused by Russia's opposition and U.S. and key European countries' backing for the new country. "We are operating in a somewhat different situation from the one that we were planning for," Bildt told The Associated Press in an interview. "Accordingly, we will have to start to adjust the plans."
The change is likely to see the U.N. mission remaining longer in Kosovo than the four-month period foreseen under the settlement that allowed for Kosovo to declare independence.
"The U.N. can be the bridge between those that have recognized and will recognize and those that don't but still want to make a contribution," Bildt said.
Bildt is a veteran of Balkan affairs. He was U.N. special envoy for the Balkans in 1999-2001, and in 1995-1997 served as the international community's High Representative for postwar Bosnia, overseeing the peace process in the former Yugoslav republic.
The EU has agreed on deploying a police and justice mission and will also closely supervise Kosovo's government through an EU-led mission equipped with veto power. But without a clear timetable on the handover of responsibilities, Kosovo is likely to be drawn into a legalistic quagmire.
Earlier a senior U.S. official warned of a complicated period ahead for Kosovo as it tries to assert itself as a state, with partial recognition from nations. Sweden has recognized Kosovo as an independent states, along with the United States, Britain and 16 nations from the EU.
Bildt is the first foreign minister to visit Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17.
On Saturday he met with Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci and president, Fatmir Sejdiu, and is to meet minority Serb leaders as well as international officials. Kosovo has experienced several violent incidents since it declared independence. Minority Serbs staged protests and attacked local police and customs officials.
Serbs are boycotting Kosovo's police service and other institutions, raising fears of a split along ethnic lines in Kosovo's Serb-dominated north.
Bildt ruled out Kosovo's partition along ethnic lines in Kosovo's north. However, he said the division was a fact and would require a large degree of self-government for the Serbs living in Kosovo's north to overcome the divide.
"Kosovo society is a divided society," Bildt said. "There will be local autonomy, local settlement on local self-government in order to long term overcome the division that is in Kosovo society today."
UN out of the US
US out of the UN
Felipe Calderon, now Gobernador of the Mexican state of Alta California, formerly the U.S. state of California, condemned the attitudes of the Anglos, and said "they have been put in their place by their own leaders", such as failed former GOP nominee John McCain, current President Hussein Obama, and convicted former President Jorge Arbusto.
The Swedish PM promised to send ethnic Somalian Muslim Swedish troops to aid the newly emergent Mexican state of Alta Sonora in their fight to break free of Gringo control.
Yeah, no kidding.
Some of them may even come to like being the water carriers for the Jihadists.
Good training for Dhimmitude.
If Bildt is for it, you can be sure it’s a bad idea. I’m waiting for Sweden to send troops there.
I know it escapes you, but the Swedes are taking a position closer to Moscow’s here. Moscow says that it’s illegal for the UN to turn over its operation to the EU. That’s why you keep holding up that UN resolution 1244 and demanding that the USA must follow “international law” and comply with the UN. It’s confusing, I know, but you’ll figure it out, I’m sure, because you’re so smart.
You mean the terms we agreed to and are now reneging on because it's politically expedient? Yes, I keep wanting the word of the United States to mean something.
I guess you'll need someone to carefully draw it all out for you, since you aren't smart enough to grasp the concept. You may also want to talk with someone who has character. Hopefully, they'd be able to enlighten you to a whole new world as well.
I'd volunteer to help, but I've got a more promising project, teaching a pig to sing.
You just keep demanding the United States obey the UN because Bill Clinton said we should, and I’ll keep opposing the UN and everything it stands for, okay buddy?
There, fixed it for you, buddy.
Your Russian pals are the banana republic and everybody knows it. You want the USA to do the bidding of KGB Putin and the United Nations. Boo hoo for you.
Nice mouth, troll.
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