Kosovo celebrates its 4th birthday

Kosovo on Friday marked its fourth anniversary of the unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia as the defiant Serb minority in the north of the breakaway territory again rejected Pristina's rule.

Pristina, KOSOVO – by Vedat Xhymshiti
| Friday, February 17, 2012 | DEMOTiX |

The modest celebration included a parade by Kosovo Security Force (KSF) units along the main Pristina ‘Mother Teresa” square.

President Atifete Jahjaga and prime minister Hashim Thaçi addressed to the crowd from a stage set at the main square, decorated with Albanian flags rising high above the snow-covered grounds.

However, the 4th anniversary has already been marred by a two-day referendum earlier this week in which an overwhelming majority of Serbs living in volatile northern Kosovo clearly rejected Pristina’s ethnic Albanian rule.

The next round of EU-mediated talks between Belgrade and Pristina are about to start on February 21, Maja Kocijancic, a spokesperson for the EU foreign policy chief, confirmed.

The agenda will cover the vexed issue of Kosovo's representation at regional meetings, which is a sticking point for the two sides. "The two sides managed to achieve certain convergence of stands, after EU mediator Robert Cooper invested intensive efforts to this purpose," Kocijancic explained.

News that the dialogue is to resume broke after Cooper returned from a visit to Kosovo where he held talks with officials.

In the past two months, Cooper has held meetings with both sides and organized numerous video and telephone conferences between Belgrade and Pristina.

EU facilitator in the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue Robert Cooper has already made up his mind regarding Kosovo’s regional representation. According to the final version, Kosovo will be represented only with its name and a footnote mentioning UN SC Resolution 1244 and the ICJ ruling.

On its 4th, birthday anniversary Kosovo received another recognition from Uganda, which counts the 88th, country that recognized Kosovo, including the United States and 22 of the EU's 27 members, accepting the state, which is the last to emerge from the remains of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. However Russia, Serbia’s old-time ally, has blocked a United Nations Security Council resolution on the country’s independence and emergence as a free state.