Serb and Kosovo officials continue talks

SERBIA: Officials from Kosovo and Belgrade met again yesterday to discuss Kosovo's bid for independence from Serbia.

However, talks in Vienna were overshadowed by the rejection of a Serb proposal for broad autonomy for Kosovo by its ethnic Albanian leaders, and by reports that the UN fears a mass exodus of Serbs if Kosovo gains independence.

The latest round of UN-brokered negotiations on Kosovo's final status focused on the potential division of debts and assets with Serbia, the possible payment of damages for Belgrade's crackdown on separatist rebels in 1998-9, and even claims for the restitution of private property seized by Yugoslavia's communist rulers after 1945.

"The key issue, not only now but in the future as well, will be ownership issues and privatisation. We will also focus on internal and foreign debts," said Serbian negotiator Dejan Popovic.

Belgrade still claims all major assets in Kosovo, including a power plant, mines and a number of factories.

"Economic issues will be vital once Kosovo's status is finally resolved," agreed Skender Hyseni, a negotiator for the region's two million ethnic Albanians who demand nothing less than full independence from Serbia.

This week Belgrade proposed extensive autonomy for Kosovo, including the right to its own police force. However Serbia would control its military, borders, customs, human rights and religious issues, and decide foreign and monetary policy.

Kosovo's deputy prime minister Lutfi Haziri, another negotiator at the Vienna talks, dismissed the offer as "an old formula... unacceptable and unreal". He said: "There is no other acceptable solution apart from independence with full sovereignty."

Belgrade newspaper Politika claimed yesterday the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is planning how to cope with the departure of most of the 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo if it is granted some form of independence, expected to happen this year.

Politika quoted the UNHCR saying that in a violence-free scenario, "it is expected that 57,000 people would change their place of residence, of which around 33,000 would come to Serbia". However, 70,000 Serbs might flee if violence accompanied independence for Kosovo, the UNHCR predicted.