Summary
Gregor Niessen & Johan te Velde
In Kosovo is geen plaats voor het Bosnisch model
Gregor Niessen and Johan te Velde deal with current developments in Kosovo. The year 2006 will be an important year for Kosovo (and also for Serbia/Montenegro). After six years negotiations on the status of Kosovo are about to start, with some delay due to the death of President Rugova. The outcome of these status discussions will be a conditional independence for Kosovo. The conditions will have to be guarded by the international community. However, the international community is dead wrong if it 'copies and pastes' the Bosnian model into Kosovo, including the appointment of a High Representative. The local Kosovo context is very different from that of Bosnia in terms of the size of the majority population relative to the minorities (90% Kosovo-Albanians/10% others). General acceptance among the Kosovo population of any visible role of the international community is low. Hence the preferable course to take would be a gradually decreasing international (EU) interference.