VIENNA: Germany and some of its European Union partners voiced fears on Friday that a possible land-swap between Serbia and Kosovo could open up old wounds in the Balkans rather than resolve their long-standing differences.

Nato intervened in 1999 to stop a bloody Serb crackdown on Albanian separatists in Kosovo. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

At talks between EU foreign ministers in Vienna, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that any exchange of territory “could rip open too many old wounds within the population. And that’s why we are very sceptical about this.” There are fears in Western Europe that any changes of the borders between Serbia and Kosovo could trigger the same demands in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, similar to the ones that triggered the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. US President Donald Trump’s administration has signaled it would accept any agreement between the two sides. Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said in early August that he rejects the idea of dividing the territory along ethnic lines, but he said he is open to discussing “a correction” of borders during EU-mediated peace talks with Serbia. However, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on Friday said that any land swap would bring new tragedies in the Balkans.

Kosovo is recognised as a nation by more than 100 countries, but Serbia and five EU countries Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain refuse to do so. Spain, for example, fears that such a move might encourage Catalan or Basque separatists.

Karin Kneissl, the foreign minister of Austria, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said: “I don’t want to lecture but border changes have always have brought new problems with them.” Her Luxembourg counterpart, Jean Asselborn, said “I’m warning against cutting things into pieces.” “This can, let’s say, have a very negative effect on other countries in this region. That’s why you need to be very careful here,” he told reporters.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo remain high after seven years of negotiations even though the EU has made it clear to both governments that they must normalise relations if they hope to join the bloc. Some Serbian and Kosovo government officials have suggested a possible solution could be a land swap based on where ethnic Serb and Albanian minorities are concentrated Kosovo’s northern Mitrovica region for Serbia’s Presevo Valley.

The Serbian government official in charge of overseeing the Kosovo Serb-populated territories in the former province, Marko Djuric, said Friday in Belgrade that Kosovo Albanian officials “can only dream” about gaining any part of Serbia in the negotiations.

“They have this maddening dream, those crazy territorial pretentions,” said Djuric, announcing a visit to Kosovo by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to the Serb enclaves on Sept 8-9.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2018