After a year of turmoil, talks on the status of Kosovo have ended bitterly as a major divide surrounds a UN plan that would see the Serbian province become independent.

 

Serbia's nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called the situation potentially "the most dangerous precedent in the history of the UN" should the Security Council ratify the plan.

 

Kostunica forewarned that the blueprint, giving Kosovo supervised nation status with the rights to its own army, flag and constitution, could create a global snowball effect, according other regions around the world legitimacy to break away. Serbian President Boris Tadic also denounced the idea as "unbearable."

 

However, Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu reiterated that his ethnic Albanian majority views eventual independence as a de facto right and the only acceptable outcome.

 

"Independence is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end of our position," Sejdiu said on Saturday, adding that ethnic Albanians "look forward to one day joining the family of free nations."

 

UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari conceded defeat following the collapse of last-ditch efforts which aimed to find common ground to build upon.

 

"No amount of additional negotiations will change that," an exasperated Ahtisaari told reporters, adding: "I firmly believe that the potential of negotiations is exhausted."

 

The former Finnish president announced that he would present the package to the Security Council by the end of the month. Yet, another furore could be sparked there. Despite support for the cause of Kosovo independence by the United States and the European Union, it has met with a frosty reaction from Russia, a long-term Serbian ally which holds veto power.

 

A UN protectorate since 1999, when NATO air-strikes on Belgrade put an end to Serbian abuses against ethnic Albanians in the southern province, Kosovo remains the last major dispute following Yugoslavia's shattering.

 

Although Serbian ultranationalists have sworn to rise up should Kosovo gain independence, Tadic has stated that, in any case, his government "has refrained so far, and will refrain in the future, from the use of force."

 

Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku sought to temper disappointment among some ethnic Albanians that the plan did not include full and immediate statehood.

 

"This proposal will surely lead to Kosovo's independence," he said, further calling for a rapid Security Council resolution removing Serbia's sovereignty over the province.

 

Sejdiu, however, did admit that Kosovo's leaders had agreed to "very painful compromises" in giving the shrinking Serbian minority self-governing rights.

 

(China Daily March 13, 2007)