Washington, Belgrade and Kosovo, 18 April (AKI) - The United States intends to increase its efforts in order for Kosovo to attain independence and in next few weeks a new resolution will be put to the UN Security Council, US under secretary Nicholas Burns told the lower chamber of the US Congress, the House of Representatives. At the discussion of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on prospects for Kosovo’s independence late on Tuesday in Washington, Burns stressed that solution is inevitable. The US fully supports special UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan proposing phased independence for Kosovo under European Union supervision.

“Supervised independence is the only way for Kosovo to make progress,” Burns said, announcing that the United States will have a new resolution proposal for the Security Council in the next few weeks in order to "eliminate political and legislative obstacles before independence."

"Afterwards, we expect Kosovo officials to proclaim independence. The US and other countries will than recognise a new country," the under secretary of State said, adding that the process should be concluded by the end of this spring.

Only Democratic Party members of the Foreign Affairs Committee opposed the US plan to push through Kosovo's independence. They argued that Ahtisaari’s plan was not a good solution for the volatile province. Moreover, US support for Kosovo's independence is inconsistent given its failure to back similar aspirations in the breakaway northern Somaliland region of Somalia and the Kurdish region of Iraq, or to recognise as a state the Asian island of Taiwan.

Serbian president Boris Tadic commented on Wednesday that the process of determining Kosovo's future status has to be done “in a European way, protecting Serbia's territorial integrity and satisfying the needs of people in the province at the same time," he said, cited by Serbian news agency Beta.

Meanwhile, a UN Security Council mission will visit Kosovo next week to assess the situation in the province. The fact-finding mission, established at the request of Russia, will look at the implementation of the UN resolution 1244 and will prepare a report to supplement Ahtisaari’s Kosovo status plan.

“Kosovo is ready and we expect the arrival of the UN mission to be successful”, interim Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu stated late on Tuesday. Asked by reporters to comment Belgrade’s estimation that the visit would set in motion new negotiations, Sejdiu stressed: “It is not up to Belgrade to talk about the agenda and attitudes of the Security Council," Beta reports.

However, Serbs living in Kosovo doubt that the mission’s report will have tangible results. Oliver Ivanovic, one of the leaders of the province’s tiny Serb minority, told Serbian television B92 he was disappointed over the decision not to send the mission to the Serb enclaves in Kosovo, a choice he said reduced the visit to a "tourist" trip.

"As the Security Council delegation will only spend one day in Kosovska Mitrovica (an ethnically divided Serbian town), our conclusion is that their intention is not to determine the facts about Kosovo and witness firsthand the living conditions of the Serb population here, but rather to reaffirm what they already have in writing, in the special representative’s reports," Ivanovic said.

Kosovo has been adminstered by the UN since 1999 when NATO airstrikes drove out Serb forces amid ethnic fighting and allegations of gross human rights abuses. The 90 percent ethnic Albanian population wants independence from Serbia - opposed by Serbs in Kosovo and by Belgrade, which has signalled it is prepared to offer the province "substantial autonomy." Ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs in the province by 17 to 1.

Source: AKI

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