U.S. think-tank urges Washington to act outside UN

The Washington-based U.S. Institute for Peace has urged the United States to bypass the UN Security Council and lead a coalition of willing states ready to recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo Albanian leadership after December 10.

(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, September 17, 2007

The government-funded think-tank has produced the paper "Kosovo: Breaking the Deadlock" with the help of 12 authors, including former advisor to the Kosovo Albanian delegation at the 1999 talks in Rambouillet Morton Abramowiz and former UNMIK chief Soren-Jessen Petersen.

It joins the other second main creator of the concept of "conditional independence" for Kosovo -- the International Crisis Group (ICG) - in its urge.

"The U.S. and its principal European allies, including all the EU members of the Contact Group, should be ready on December 10 to announce in concert their intention to recognize Kosovo as an independent state at the end of the transition period, subject only to Kosovo's acceptance of minority guarantees along the lines recommended by President Ahtisaari, if necessary without a new UNSC resolution. The purpose would be to ensure effective international oversight in an independent Kosovo and to minimize the risks of instability", the report, written by the think-tank's Balkan director Daniel Serwer, says.

The report argues that "the preferred way of doing this would be to continue to regard UNSC resolution 1244 as valid. States prepared to recognize Kosovo would decide to proceed with implementation of essential parts of the Ahtisaari plan on the basis that the status process Resolution 1244 foresaw has concluded. The UN, NATO and all other international organizations could continue to exercise their functions as laid down in Resolution 1244 in an independent Kosovo, much as they have in an independent Bosnia since 1995".

"A less desirable, but possibly necessary, alternative would involve deeming UN Security Council resolution 1244 to have been fulfilled with conclusion of the status process. An ad hoc coalition would agree to recognize Kosovo in exchange for Pristina's implementation of essential parts of the Ahtisaari plan and would appoint a High Representative to exercise the oversight functions foreseen there. The UN would withdraw. Under either alternative, NATO would continue to exercise all its functions under its existing mandate", the report suggested.

Serwer admitted that in the case of such scenarios a split within the EU would be likely.

But, he added, "if in the next dozen years, a larger number of countries unilaterally recognize the independence of Kosovo, this will be all right, since some countries have not been recognized by all for many years now".