RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 182, Part II, 24 September 2003

KOSOVA TALKS APPEAR SET... Representatives of the six-member
international Contact Group for the Balkans agreed on the sidelines
of the UN General Assembly session in New York on 23 September to
back a proposal for Belgrade-Prishtina talks put forward by Harri
Holkeri, the head of the UN civilian administration in Kosova
(UNMIK), regional and international media reported (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 15 and 22 September 2003 and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 27
June and 1 and 15 August 2003). Diplomats from the United States,
Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy said in a
statement that "the Contact Group reiterated that the international
community [will] not accept attempts by any party to preempt or
circumscribe the question of Kosovo's eventual final status," adding
that the international community remains committed to the principle
of "standards before status." PM

...FOR MID-OCTOBER. Diplomats from the international Contact Group
agreed in New York on 23 September that the Belgrade-Prishtina talks
on practical issues will take place in mid-October in Vienna,
international and regional media reported. The Serbian private news
agency Beta reported that the exact date will depend on the schedules
of unnamed EU representatives. Officials of the EU, NATO, the Contact
Group, and the United States will be present at the talks, which
Holkeri will chair. Several Kosovar leaders have argued that there is
no point in their holding talks with Belgrade as long as UNMIK has
the final say in many areas of concern to the Serbs. Those Kosovars
add that UNMIK should either transfer more powers to the Prishtina
authorities or join the Kosovar delegation at the talks, rather than
act as a mediator. The ethnic Albanians insist, moreover, on a
central role for the United States in the talks. The Serbs of Kosova
will be part of the Prishtina delegation, Deutsche Welle's "Monitor"
reported. PM

RUSSIA AGAIN CALLS FOR BALKAN BORDER CONFERENCE. In an exclusive
interview with MIA news agency, Russian Ambassador to Macedonia
Agaron Asatur said in Skopje on 23 September that an international
conference dealing with borders in Southeast Europe should be
convened. The purpose would be to fix the existing borders in the
region once and for all and to regulate the status of national
minorities, Asatur said. He stressed that this conference with
participants from the UN, the EU, the United States, Russia, and the
Balkan countries will have nothing in common with the 1913 and 1919
peace conferences of Bucharest and Versailles, which were disastrous
for Macedonia in that its territory was carved up among its neighbors
Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Russia has called for conference on
borders several times in recent years, finding strong support
primarily in Belgrade. The region's ethnic Albanians, the Montenegrin
authorities, and some Western powers have rejected the move as an
attempt to predetermine the final status of Kosova and Montenegro.
UB/PM