Go Slowly, Kosovo

Atenuous peace is settling over Yugoslavia. The country is in the hands of a democratically elected president, and moderates prevailed in last Saturday’s municipal elections in Kosovo. But a dispute over the legal status of the province, now under the control of the United Nations, is simmering just below the surface. The Kosovars want independence from Yugoslavia, but Belgrade insists Kosovo is and always will be a part of Serbia. The two sides will have to settle their dispute themselves. The role of U.S. and Western governments is to insist on a peaceful resolution of Kosovo’s future status and to watch over the Kosovars’ safety during the process.

A U.S. diplomat may have stated the obvious when he said last weekend in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, that U.N. Resolution 1244, which identifies Kosovo as an integral but autonomous part of Yugoslavia, does not preclude full independence for Kosovo down the road. The resolution outlines Kosovo’s legal status during the transitional period in which it is developing democratic institutions. It leaves the issue of the final status open.

But now is not the time to raise the prospect of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia. It encourages the militant followers of the Kosovo Liberation Army to pursue the struggle for independence and intensifies nationalism in Belgrade. Raising the question of the final status for Kosovo is premature. The Kosovo moderates may have won the municipal elections, but, without a functioning judiciary or coherent legal structure, the province has a long way to go to call itself a democracy. It is likely to remain a ward of the U.N. for years to come.

Meanwhile, the West should take heart from the expressions of the people’s will for peace. Yugoslavia’s new president, Vojislav Kostunica, has repeatedly said, despite his hard line on Kosovo, that he wants the Serbs to live in peace with their neighbors. He demonstrated this Wednesday by freeing Flora Brovina, a jailed ethnic Albanian activist, and promising amnesty for hundreds of others. Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Kosovar leader, is also committed to a negotiated solution for his province.

Clearly, the sovereignty issue will weigh heavily on relations between Pristina and Belgrade. But neither side would go to war to settle it. The possibility of a war will diminish over time, as both sides develop into functioning democracies and learn to talk to one another.