Nada Kovacevic of Belgrade daily "Danas" looks at the Contact group Kosovo autonomy proposal and the views it created in Serbian and Albanian political parties, in this newspaper's August 23, 1998 issue.

Kosovo could soon attain "Autonomy +," and it is also possible that elections will be held by the end of the year. This is what could be heard from the sources close to Serbian political authorities. President Slobodan Milosevic is having direct negotiations about this with Christopher Hill, American ambassador to Macedonia. The problem which are holding up the whole project at the moment are, how to entice the Albanians to accept it and how to find a formula which will allow Kosovo to remain in Serbian and still have some form of a status within Yugoslavia.

The solution of the second part of the problem is being devised by experts, while the attempt at the first one is being made by the Serbian police. When it became obvious that the Albanians do not want to show any flexibility, transatlantic mentors have given an adequate wink to the Serbian president to deal with KLA.

Autonomy +" would be greater than that envisaged by the SFRY 1974 Constitution in some aspects, but would not have any statehood elements and would not envisage secession capabilities. Kosovo would exercise its independence in the sphere of internal affairs, education, judiciary, health, culture and partly fiscal system. It is interesting that the autonomy that is being circulated now does not suit any model proposed by the Contact group. Those that had the possibility to read this proposal, insist that it is not even formulated as a proposal, but as an initiating framework for negotiations, and contain advice on certain models. In the same document, the Contact group has made a list of questions which have to be discussed, health, education, media, police, judiciary, democratization in general and calming of tensions.

The autonomy models which have been proposed have been achieved in Southern Tyrol, Basque, Tatarstan, Aaland, while the Contact group was of the opinion that the "Z4" plan (formerly designed for Croatian Serbs) should be taken into consideration. It was envisaged that both sides are to give their opinion on the listed models, while further negotiations were to bring a solution which could even be a model which has not been applied so far, as well as a combination of a number of well known models.

What is certain from the beginning is that Kosovo will attain some form of strengthened autonomy. All of the models could be reduced to this formula. What remains open is the question whether the province will attain some form of a special status, or even become a third republic within the federal state.

At least publicly, the Serbian side has welcomed the Contact group suggestion, while the Albanais found themselves in open space, because their acceptance would represent much stronger backtracking. With any of the proposed options, the regime in Serbia could explain to its population that the autonomy already exists in the Constitution, and all that has to be done is strengthen it a bit. On the other hand, the Albanians would have to swallow the bitter pill of abandoning of the proclaimed goals such as independence and Greater Albania. What makes it even worse for them, not a single proposal of the international community mentions in any way any form of independence. There are not even elements which could be seen as intermediate steps towards independence. Simply put, until further notice, Yugoslavia is being pinned down within present borders and the negotiations could only be conducted about other matters.

Serbian political parties have almost unanimously accepted the Contact group suggestions, even though the people in the know of the content of the proposal insist that the parties obviously have not seen the proposal at all ! At the same time the government has been singled out for not formulating a platform for the solution of the Kosovo problem. As far as our sources say, the government has a platform, but has no concept how to confront current Albanian tactic of prolonging the actual start of the negotiations. It seems that the pendulum of responsibility for the non - start of the negotiations has recently swung in the eyes of the international community to the Albanian side, but all are fearful of even a single wrong step of the Serbian regime.

Kosovo is currently at the top of the agenda of the international community, and all of its representatives are acting decisively to take it of from there. In the coming months, up to a year, elections will be held in Germany, USA, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, so Kosovo has to be solved until then, so that it could retreat into background. In April of the forthcoming year, NATO has to round off the first stage of its enlargement, so its hard to believe that it will allow Kosovo to flare up while the promotional session is on. That is why all is possible, even elections by the end of the year in which the Albanians would participate. Its Hill's job that they should agree to this.


Source: Belgrade daily "Danas," August 23, 1998