Word: serbia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Security Council put paid to any real hope of compromise. When Kosovo Albanians then renewed the threat to declare independence, whatever the objections of Belgrade and Moscow, Western leaders found it difficult to argue for an alternative. "Now that Russia has cast its lot so effusively with Serbia," said one Western official, "I don't see another five, six or 10 months of talks providing any significant benefits." Fed up with the stonewalling, the U.S. and major E.U. countries such as France, Britain and Germany have now signaled their readiness to recognize Kosovo, though a handful of smaller E.U. states...
...everyone agrees. Most Kosovo Albanians, who make up an estimated 90% of the population, do indeed see independence as long overdue. But Serbia itself and Kosovo's Serb minority remain implacably opposed to the idea. On the eve of the final round of talks this week between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs aimed at negotiating a solution to Kosovo's status (legally, it is now no more than a province of Serbia), Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica vowed that Belgrade would "never let an inch of its territory be taken away." Kosovo Serbs warned of "permanent instability" if Kosovo is granted...
Kosovo Albanians have been agitating for full independence from Belgrade since before NATO planes drove Serb forces out of the province in 1999. But the U.N. resolution which helped end that conflict left the province part of Serbia. Last year, the U.N. introduced a plan that envisioned "supervised" independence for the territory, with the full blessing of the international community. But Belgrade, backed by Moscow, refused to budge. "Kosovo is our Jerusalem," Bozidar Djelic, Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister, told TIME recently. "That's where our church was born. That's where our kings were crowned...
...intransigence of Russia and Serbia has emboldened Kosovo's Serbs, who still make up just under 10% of the province's population. Their leaders in northern Kosovo are threatening to secede themselves if Kosovo breaks away. "Albanians don't want to be ruled from Belgrade; we don't want to be ruled from Pristina," Milan Ivanovic, head of the hard-line Serbian National Council in the northern town of Mitrovice, told TIME. "There is an impression," he added ominously, "that Serbia will not make any radical moves if Kosovo declares independence. That is wrong. If they try to kick...
...Belgrade itself, where politics is poised between moderately pro-Western forces who want Serbia to join the E.U. and nationalists who favor closer ties with Moscow, a decision by the E.U. to back Kosovo's independence could make waves. Aleksander Popovic, deputy head of the ruling Democratic Party of Serbia, told TIME that Serbia may well reconsider its "betrothal" to the E.U. if the E.U. recognizes Kosovo. Djelic, the Deputy Premier, agrees: E.U. support for a unilateral declaration, he said, "would throw the European orientation of Serbia - and certainly the speed of reform - into question." In one recent poll...