BELGRADE: The long awaited United Nations proposal on the status of the southern Serbian province Kosovo takes it towards independence, but not all the way.

Submission of the plan for Kosovo by UN negotiator Martti Ahtisaari in Belgrade and in Pristina on Friday provoked quite different reactions in the opposed capitals.

In Belgrade, Serbian President Boris Tadic said that “Serbia, and I as its president, will never accept Kosovo’s independence.”

Ahtisaari handed Tadic a 60-page document that stops short of defining the province as an independent state. The plan, however, provides Kosovo with the right to approach international bodies, have its own flag and national anthem, and keep a security force.

What is practically a road to independence will be overseen by the European Union mission and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military presence.

For some 80,000 Serbs surrounded by almost two million ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the plan previsions special relations with Belgrade and particular protection of Serbian Orthodox shrines.

That is not good enough for Serbian leaders. “The forced independence of Kosovo would be contrary to all the basic principles of international law and would represent a dangerous political and legal precedent,” Tadic said in a televised address to the nation.

In Pristina, Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said “Kosovo will be sovereign as any other country.” Prime Minister Agim Ceku added that “the document is very clear for Kosovo futureàthe process will end when Kosovo becomes an independent state.”

Ahtisaari told reporters in Belgrade that his “settlement package is a compromise” which is yet to be discussed by both parties. This will begin through his mediation starting on Feb 13. It will go to the UN Security Council “later this spring,” he added.

At present, independence of Kosovo is something no Serb politician is willing to accept. Serb politicians have failed to explain to the public that it will be up to the international community to decide the fate of the province ever since the talks began a year ago. —Dawn/The IPS News Service