CIAO DATE: 06/2009
May 2009
"Serb Integration in Kosovo: Taking the Plunge", the latest International Crisis Group report, argues that such integration is an important challenge for the year-old state. The Pristina government should do more to emphasise to Kosovo Serbs - few of whom deal with state bodies - the benefits of dialogue and cooperation. There is a real opportunity now that Belgrade's strategy to undermine independent Kosovo by supporting parallel institutions both to prevent Serbs' exodus and to isolate them from Kosovo structures is having only limited success.
"Belgrade's approach has become more difficult to sustain because its budget is under strain from the global economic crisis, and the parallel institutions it has set up for Serbs in Kosovo are rife with corruption", says Srdjan Djeric, Crisis Group's Balkans Analyst. "Belgrade has been paying salary supplements for public-sector workers, as an inducement for them remain in Kosovo, but it has been forced to cut back, thus reducing its leverage and control. This is an opportunity for the Pristina government"
Resource link: Serb Integration in Kosovo: Taking the Plunge [PDF] - 579K