UN Special Envoy for Kosovo visits NATO

UN Special Envoy for Kosovo visits NATO

The UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, visited NATO Headquarters on Friday, 16 February 2007. He met NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and addressed the North Atlantic Council (NAC) with non-NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) contributors.

The NATO Secretary General said after the meeting that the NAC had expressed strong support for the Ahtisaari proposal for the future status of Kosovo. He added that KFOR was in Kosovo for the safety of all Kosovars and that violence was never a solution. He emphasized the need to retain the unity and territorial integrity of Kosovo, completely rejecting the notion of partition and calling for a solution to be reached “in a timely manner.”
Mr. Ahtisaari thanked KFOR for its “very good work” providing logistic and other support for his mission.

Joint press point
with NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari

De Hoop De Hoop Scheffer: Good afternoon. I can say once again, a great pleasure for all of us to receive President Ahtisaari here at NATO headquarters. We had a meeting as you know in KFOR format, as we call it, that is the North Atlantic Council, but also the nations who contribute to KFOR in Kosovo.
A few remarks from my side to start off. I think that around the table we saw very strong support indeed for the proposals as presented by President Ahtisaari, which is very important, because not only in the European Union, but also here around this table at the other side of Brussels, it is important that there is unity. And there is unity for the proposals and there is unity also as far as the notion is concerned that we should find a solution in a timely manner; in other words, the timelines President Ahtisaari envisages also drew strong support around the table.
You know that I was in Pristina in Kosovo yesterday. To prevent any further questions, my messages were relatively simple. A: support for the Ahtisaari proposals; B, KFOR is there for the security and stability and the safety of all Kosovars, be they majority, be they minority. Point number three: there can never be any solution on the basis of violence. Point number four: it is of great importance, according to the Contact Group principles, that all parties fully respect now and in the end the territorial integrity. In other words, there can never a partition scenario, a scenario based on partition.
I told the unity team in Pristina yesterday that it is important that they are a unity team and that unity is written in capitals. And finally, they will be watched in Kosovo. All parties will be watched what messages they will send in the important process which is ahead of us.
In brief, support for President Ahtisaari and his proposals and it was highly appreciated that he took the trouble of coming to Brussels again. You know that in the framework of the international military presence, NATO will play an important role, which also underlines and let me finish there, is the importance in this regard of a very close contact between NATO and the European Union on the ground of course in Kosovo, but also very much here in Brussels at the technical as well as at the political level.
Welcome President Ahtisaari.
Ahtisaari: Thank you Secretary General.
Ladies and gentlemen may I first of all say that I apologize that when I was here on Monday I was expecting most of you when I came out from the same door that I went in, but I didn't see a single soul there. So I'm thankful that Secretary General has given us an opportunity to meet now here. We had a good meeting with the Secretary General as usual and I thank him for the support and the good work that the KFOR has been doing because it has also helped our mission by providing logistics and support in many ways.
You know that I presented my draft proposal to the parties on the 2nd and we are now in a process of preparing for the meetings that will start on the 21st in Vienna. I was last week in New York attending the policy committee of the Secretary General and I got full support from the Secretary General and colleagues in the UN Secretariat to move forward as planned.
I don't think there's any point of repeating what is in the proposal. I assume that you have all read it. It's only 58 pages and may I advertise further that my office has on its website the executive summary and the fact sheets on different areas of the proposal. So that for those who can't read the 58 or don't have time to read the 58 pages, you have this information available in a shorter form in English, Serbian and Albanian.
I had a good meeting with the North Atlantic Council today and very supportive and I think it was a good exchange of views. It hopefully clarifies also the proposals and where we are heading and there was strong support for and also encouragement to both parties to engage constructively in the consultative process which I will start, as I said, on the 21st.
Thank you for your attention.
Questions and answers
Q: For Secretary General. You were yesterday in Kosovo and we know about this possibility of inter-ethnic collision, but do you have fear that in the future when we will have status of Kosovo result, that there could be also inter-Albanian collision? For example, we know that some political leaders, Albanian leaders, came from the war and in the future we can imagine very easily that, for example, Tachi and Haradinaj in the future could use not just political terms to go on the power. So do you think that in the future NATO should be aware of this possibility of inter-Albanian collision, not just Serbian-Albanian collision?
And for Mr. Ahtisaari. Do you think that the guarantee that you provide in your plan is enough for Serbs to stay in Kosovo after status decision?
Thank you.
De Hoop Scheffer: Rhetorically I could answer you what answer do you expect me to give. Of course the efforts by President Ahtisaari, hopefully resulting in a Security Council resolution, will find a solution for the status of Kosovo in which all people will live in peace and security and stability together. And what I also underlined yesterday to all my interlocutors, was that finally what is important for all Kosovars? That is seeing their standard of living improve; that is having a job; that is seeing education, seeing infrastructure, seeing development. That is what it's all about.
So I do not think you would expect me, as we are in the process of trying to find a solution - we NATO in its role, President Ahtisaari in his very important role - that status solution should not lead to everybody living in harmony together.
Ahtisaari: Whether the proposals provide a greater guarantee for Kosovo-Serbs was your question. I think the big difference to the past seven, soon eight years, that UNMIK has been there is that the status hopefully will be decided. That is abig change that creates a totally different atmosphere. And this, as I have said, two thirds of this settlement proposal is catering for the needs of Kosovo-Serbs and other non-Albanian communities.
So I think we have tried to create conditions and I hope that with the help of EU and NATO, the international community will support this plan, if it is in its final form approved by the Security Council in such a manner, that those who want to return to Kosovo who are now living somewhere else, will have a chance to do so. Secondly, no one needs to leave, for the security reasons, Kosovo. If they do leave, then they have other reasons to leave. You can never force anybody to stay, but at least the whole idea is to create conditions where everyone can have a more sustainable life than they have at the moment which leaves a lot to be desired.
As the Secretary General of NATO said, I think the first emphasis has to be on improving the economy of the country because if nearly 50 percent of the people are unemployed, you'll see what sort of problems that creates.
Q: Mr. Ahtisaari what is the purpose of the meetings in Vienna if, according to your statements, we cannot expect anything… any agreement between the sides and if Belgrade already in advance have a resolution rejecting your proposal?
And a question for both. Since the small postponement of this round of talks of one week already created more tensions in Kosovo, how confident can Kosovar people be when you say that there will be no more postponements in the process, because we heard this several times and again postponement happens?
Ahtisaari: First of all this delay had nothing to do with what happened on the 10th. That demonstration was announced already, if I recall correctly, in the end of January, and my decision came only last week to keep one more week within the framework which we had originally had in mind. As I very often say, I come from a country where one of the characteristics of us Fins is that we are extremely realistic, otherwise we would not exist in the world. I think our history proves that.
So therefore, I have my doubts and I don't believe in miracles. But I have wanted genuinely to give the parties a chance to come together once more. We will go through thoroughly the settlement plan that I have proposed to them. I will hear them and if they can agree on any new ideas or clarifications… even we when we go through the plan, we very often find that something could be said more clearly than we have done. That's what we have gone thoroughly through the plan already and I think there's a general support from the international community that we should engage once again the parties.
But this can't be an eternal process either because I think we have to draw the conclusion that some states (inaudible) this is it. This is as far as we have been able to go and then report to the Secretary General and Security Council.
De Hoop Scheffer: I have nothing specific to add to the, as always, wise words of President Ahtisaari.
Q: Pascal Mallet, Agence France-Presse, AFP.
Mr. Ahtisaari what is then the margin for manoeuvres; should we say all right negotiations in Vienna or simply discussions of information meeting?
Ahtisaari: I think I mentioned already that if the parties can come with ideas that we can get both parties to support adjustment to the settlement plan, I'm prepared to entertain those. But it can't be consultative process where one comes with the idea and the other one comes with a totally opposite idea and then leaves us there in the middle. But I am prepared to listen to both parties because for the first time they have a comprehensive draft plan which they have had time now to study carefully.
I even offered that my colleagues would go both to Belgrade and Pristina last week to answer questions about the plan and clarifications before we start the consultation process. Pristina utilized this opportunity; Belgrade didn't. So my colleagues have been last week in Pristina answering questions about the plan. So of course there is… it is an open process, but you have seen the statement of the Parliament as the terms of reference for Serbian negotiating team; you have seen the comments coming from Pristina as well I'm sure. You have written some of those. So you know in what sort of spirits we are meeting.
But everyone I think agrees that this phase we have to have and I agree with all of those.
Q: Secretary General I have a question concerning U.S. missile shield to be built in Central Europe. Is it correct that such a fundamental question is discussed only on a bilateral level between Czech Republic and United States or between Poland and United States? And can this shield protect also Europe from possible North Korean or Iranian attack?
Thank you.
De Hoop Scheffer: There's nothing wrong of course. It's entirely correct that this is being discussed between the United States and in this case two allies, the Czech Republic and Poland. But I add, as I said in Munich last Saturday, that the NATO summit in Riga also asked us here in Brussels, me and the North Atlantic Council, to continue the discussion on missile defence and that is what we'll do here in Brussels. In other words, as I said in Munich, it is also a time to NATO-ize this debate and to have a discussion on this here in Brussels in the North Atlantic Council as well, but that is of course a separate trajectory as what is now going on on a bilateral basis between the United States and the Czech Republic, and the United States and Poland.