Kosovo, Serbia fall short of diffusing tensions, agree to resolve war missing cases

Kosovo and Serbia’s leaders met in Brussels on Tuesday (2 May) for talks on the EU-backed plan to normalise relations, agreeing to cooperate on resolving cases of missing persons but stumbling on lowering tensions in Serb-majority North Kosovo.

In February, Pristina and Belgrade agreed to implement a Western-backed deal, followed by an agreement on an implementation annexe in March in Ohrid, but little progress has been made since.

In the interim, tensions flared once again in the country’s north as Pristina held local elections to replace ethnic Serbs that resigned from their mandates in protest over new license plate rules in December.

The vote, which saw the lowest turnout in the country’s history at 3.47% following calls for a boycott from Belgrade, led to accusations of a takeover from Serbian leaders.

The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said he had expressed “grave concern about the situation in the north Kosovo” following elections “with a very low turnout.”

“They have the potential to lead to escalation and to undermine the agreement’s implementation,” he said after the meeting.

“It is not what we want to happen. I hope nobody wants it to happen, but it is a big risk. Therefore I have urged both parties to find a solution that enables Kosovo Serbs to strengthen and return to the institutions they left in November last year,” Borrell added.

He urged parties to compromise and warned that any further escalation could “undermine” the implementation of the EU-backed deal on normalising ties.

Many of the 50,000 Serbs in the north do not recognise Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia following the 1998-1999 war.

Association of Serb Municipalities

During the dialogue, one of Serbia’s demands is an Association of Serb Municipalities that would provide Serbs with autonomy within Kosovo.

Minorities in Kosovo enjoy considerable rights under the constitution, including Serbian being an official language, guaranteed seats in parliament regardless of election results, representation at a municipal level, the right to nominate key police officials in Serb majority areas, Serbian language taught and studied in Serb-majority schools instead of Albanian, and at least one minister from the Serb minority in government.

The creation of the association was signed in previous EU-backed talks, namely in 2013 but has yet to be implemented as Kosovo’s Constitutional Court ruled various features of the association were unconstitutional.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has since refused to establish the association, instead laying down his conditions for its creation.

Serbia’s President Alexandar Vučić and Kurti on Tuesday discussed a first EU-prepared draft on establishing a possible model for such an association but disagreed on a framework, a condition set by Serbs to participate in Kosovo institutions.

Their views were “quite apart on the nature of the association,” Borrell said after the meeting, adding that the parties agreed to start negotiations “in the near future.”

Serbia, Kosovo 'gentlemen's agreement' on EU-backed deal unpacked

While Kosovo and Serbia reached a verbal agreement on implementing an EU-backed deal to normalise ties over the weekend, disagreements and a lack of clarity over what shape some provisions will take, remain.

Vučić told reporters after Tuesday’s talks that “Pristina does not want to fulfil the obligation. It’s clear to me, we’ve reached a wall,” adding the presented draft does not include points which have not already been discussed and agreed upon.

Meanwhile, Kurti said in Brussels that Kosovo was “interested in finding a solution”, but the draft presented was not in accordance with the Kosovo constitution and cannot be accepted.

“I proposed a draft vision showing the framework governing minority rights (…) Serbs will have rights and together we will have a society that leaves no one behind.”

Miroslav Lajčák, the EU’s envoy to the negotiations, said Tuesday’s meeting was “a crucial step forward and it’s important to avoid any actions that could worsen the atmosphere.”

Agreement on war missing

However, the two parties on Tuesday pledged to work together to locate Kosovo war-era burial sites to identify the remains of those still missing from the 1998-99 conflict.

Nearly 24 years later, of the 6,065 cases of mainly Kosovo Albanians who disappeared due to the 1998-99 war, 1,621 remain unresolved, EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said.

While some mass graves have been discovered recently, Kosovo accuses Serbia of failing to face its crimes and refusing to cooperate on returning the missing home. Civil society has repeatedly called on both sides not to politicise the issue, but the issue of the missing remains one of the thorniest issues between the two countries.

Kurti and Vučić “reaffirmed the importance of resolving the fate of the remaining missing persons, to bring closure to the suffering of their loved ones and to foster lasting reconciliation and peace”, Borrell said in a statement.

He also “noted the urgent need for additional joint efforts to alleviate the situation of the affected families and the wider community”, he added.

Under the declaration, the parties will cooperate closely on the identification of grave sites and will ensure full access to reliable and accurate information that helps in locating and identifying missing persons from the time frame from 1 January 1998 to 31 December 2000.

Both parties have agreed to share documents, including those that are classified, and to use satellite data and other technology to detect the sites of suspected mass graves.

“Operational details” will be agreed upon at the next meeting of the EU-facilitated talks at the chief negotiators’ level.

“Resolving the issue of missing persons is not only a humanitarian obligation. It is also a crucial enabler for reconciliation and trust between people,” Borrell said.

Kurti later said the agreement started the talks on a “high positive note”.

The EU’s rule of law mission in Kosovo (EULEX) has previously stated it is difficult to find bodies of the missing as many were buried in small, unmarked graves or in cemeteries, in an effort by the perpetrators to make the search more difficult and to hide evidence.

Bojana Zimonjic Jelisavac contributed to this report.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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