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Opinion
September 21, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
countries. The step follows a lengthy struggle within Kosovo to ratify a border demarcation deal with Montenegro, one of the more controversial pre-conditions for visa liberalisation, with the opposition resorting to letting off tear gas in the parliament to prevent MPs from voting.
Standoff in north Kosovo
Given the underlying tensions in the region, however, there have as always been small-scale conflicts. Tensions were hiked over the weekend of September 8-9 in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic cancelled a planned meeting in Brussels with his Kosovan counterpart Hashim Thaci. The reason given was that the Kosovan authorities had not al- lowed Vucic to visit the dam on Gazivoda Lake, an important strategic asset in north Kosovo.
A couple of days later, Kosovan activists includ- ing veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), blocked the road to an ethnic Serb village in the region to stop Vucic from visiting. In the end, the EU intervened to ask the protesters to unblock the road. Further controversy came when Vucic deliv- ered a speech to Serbs in Mitrovica, northern Kos- ovo, where he talked of the late dictator Slobodan Milosevic as a “great leader who certainly had the best intentions, but the results were very poor” — unsurprisingly that sparked angry reactions from Pristina, Sarajevo and Zagreb.
Yet the events of September 7-9 are seen as part of the long and tortuous political path to a negoti- ated settlement between Belgrade and Pristina, that could finally lead to the two states moving forward towards EU accession — Serbia by 2025, Kosovo at some unspecified time in the future. Normalisation of relations with Kosovo is one of the steps that must be taken as part of EU can- didate country Serbia’s accession process. Ko- sovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is not able to make progress towards accession to the bloc as five EU member states do not recognise it as an independent step.
The normalisation process is therefore critical to
both sides, and the indications are that after years of talks, several breakthrough agreements and as many setbacks, a deal could now be reached in the near future.
Officials from both countries, including their two presidents, have talked recently of a possible land swap or “border correction” as part of a lasting solution to the longstanding conflict. Such a deal could see the Presevo Valley in Serbia, which is mainly populated by ethnic Albanians, handed over to Pristina, while northern Kosovo would go to Ser- bia. Recognition of Kosovo as an independent state is another critical question to be resolved.
The idea of such a deal has, however, already met with fierce opposition in both countries, including from top government officials — Kosovan Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said a land swap would mean “war”, while Serbia’s Foreign Minis- ter Ivica Dacic said “pigs will fly” before Belgrade would recognise Kosovo. Not only that, but out- side the country, while EU and US officials have been encouraging the steps towards a settlement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come down against a land swap.
Both sides are using delaying tactics as they try to reach a deal while at the same time prepar- ing their populations, wrote Marta Szpala of the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), referencing the events of early September. Internationally, Germany’s support has been critical for Serbia’s progress towards EU accession, meaning that Vucic has to try and persuade Merkel to drop her opposition to a territorial exchange.
“Vucic is attempting to play on the differences
of opinions between the individual states and is capitalising on the increasing tension in relations between Belgrade and Pristina to prove to the German government that the only solution to the dispute is the adjustment of the borders,” Szpala wrote in a September 12 comment.
Kosovo is even keener to reach an agreement that Serbia, adds Szpala, since this is the only