KOSOVO should be placed on the credit side of Western intervention in the Balkans but the issue is far from settled. So US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did well in reminding Serbs that they must accept Kosovo's borders as they stand now. “We oppose any discussion of territorial changes or reopening Kosovo's independent status,” Clinton said after meeting with Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and President Atifete Jahjaga in Pristina on Wednesday. “These matters are not up for discussion. The boundaries of an independent, sovereign Kosovo are clear and set.” Unfortunately, neighboring Serbia does not think so. Belgrade still refuses to accept Kosovo's independence although 90 nations including the United States have. Neither has it given up its claim on the northern part of Kosovo. Serbia's forces were driven out of Kosovo after NATO mounted an air war in 1999 to stop the persecution of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. This was followed by a period of UN-supervised autonomy until Kosovo declared its independence in 2008. Serbs form slightly more than six percent of Kosovo's 1.7 million residents. About 60,000 Serbs who live in the northern part of the country have continued to run their own schools and hospitals, which are under the protection of Serbian security forces and financed by the authorities in Belgrade. The European Union and the US want to put an end to this “state within a state” situation. Catherine Ashton, EU's foreign policy chief, has been prodding Kosovo and Serbia to improve their relations. She succeeded in getting the prime ministers of the two nations into the same room last month. But nobody thinks the meeting has cleared the way for a dialogue leading to a historic accord. So far, the steps that the two sides have taken have been somewhat technical. Although Serbia has dropped objections to Kosovo's participation in international meetings, there are no signs that it is ready to cross any substantive redlines. There is a lot at stake for both sides and the wider world outside. Unless handled with diplomatic dexterity and extreme care, there are chances of the situation getting out of control and exploding into the inter-religious violence of the type that Bosnia witnessed in the wake of the break-up of Yugoslavia. It was in Kosovo that resurgent Serbian nationalism which led to the Bosnian massacres made its first appearance. To make matters worse, the Serbian monasteries, considered to be among the five most important holy sites of the Mediterranean, happen to be situated in the northern part of Kosovo. The monasteries should be a source of inter-cultural dialogue, but in the hands of people like Slobodan Milosevic, who was president of Yugoslavia and later of Serbia or Radovan Karad?ic, a former Bosnian Serb politician, they can turn into explosive devices. So both sides should proceed with caution. Kosovo's responsibility is greater. The new state has powerful backers like the US and EU. They can and are applying pressure on Serbia, but only Kosovo can win the trust of the Serb minority. That is why Hillary Clinton urged the authorities in Pristina to reach out to the Serbs. The best way to ensure stability in the Balkans and win Serbian recognition for Kosovo is to assure the minority that their political and religious rights are safe in a sovereign Kosovo.
