The hostility among leaders of former Yugoslavia emerged again today, threatening to ruin a summit of European Union and Balkan leaders planned in Slovenia this month, according to dpa. Kosovo's president, Fatmir Sejdiu, said he would attend the conference in Brdo, near Kranj, only of he is invited as the head of a fully fledged state. "President Sejdiu has not yet received a formal invitation for the EU-Western Balkans conference in Brdo," Sejdiu's spokesman, Xhavit Beqiri, told the German Press Agency dpa. "The president will represent our country and be equal with other participants." In case Sejdiu does not receive an invitation as "president of the Republic of Kosovo ... he will not attend," Beqiri said. If Sejdiu receives the invitation, Serbian President Boris Tadic will not attend. Last month the same row marred the new Croatian President Ivo Josipovic's inauguration, as Belgrade boycotted it because of Pristina's presence. Belgrade media on Tuesday quoted sources in Slovenia as saying that Slovenia planned a compromise by inviting Sejdiu to attend as a representative of Kosovo/UNMIK. UNMIK is the United Nations administration that governed the former Serbian province between the end of the war there in 1999 and Kosovo's declaration of independence. Diplomatic maneuvering by Serbia and its superpower ally Russia have secured a minimal presence of UNMIK to remain in Kosovo. Serbia continues to insist that Kosovo is its territory and that it can be represented only by the UN mission. But while the Serbian side said Kosovo/UNMIK is acceptable, Sejdiu flatly dismissed the idea. In the two years since it declared independence, Kosovo has been recognized by 65 nations, including the United States, 22 out of the 27 EU countries and all countries in the region excluding Serbia, Greece and Romania. Serbia, which hopes to become an EU membership candidate in the near future, recently received warnings from France and Germany to relax its position regarding Kosovo and to begin working with it on practical issues, even if it continues refusing to recognize it.
