CIAO DATE: 02/2012
February 2012
"Kosovo and Serbia: A Little Goodwill Could Go a Long Way", the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines on-going instability in the North, the latest bout of which began when Pristina’s police tried to reach two customs posts on the border with Serbia in July. Local Serbs set up barricades and are still blocking the movement of Kosovo officials and the EU’s Rule of Law mission (EULEX). “Northern Serbs reject the Kosovo customs officials and border police and block EULEX, fearing the deployment is the beginning of the end to their way of life in the North, which has been largely separate from the rest of Kosovo’s”, says Marko Prelec, Crisis Group’s Balkans Project Director. “They need to be respected as parties to the conflict, and it is wrong to assume that Belgrade can force them into compliance”. The event was the first major move by Pristina to demonstrate control over the North and to secure its borders since it declared independence in 2008. Pristina feels that Serbia has increased its influence over the North, despite a 2010 ruling by the International Court of Justice that the declaration of independence did not violate international law, and worries that left unchallenged, partition may take root. The current conflict is so difficult to resolve and likely to be drawn out because it is not a technical dispute about customs; it is over sovereignty, with customs only the field on which it is fought. The sides (Kosovo, Kosovo Serbs, Serbia and members of the international community) have fundamentally opposing interpretations of Kosovo’s status, the status of northern Kosovo and the boundary between Kosovo and Serbia.
Resource link: Kosovo and Serbia: A Little Goodwill Could Go a Long Way [PDF] - 1.3M