Negotiations Begin on Kosovo’s Status

Serbs and ethnic Albanians trying to resolve one of the toughest disputes left from the Balkan wars of the 1990s met in Vienna to discuss whether Kosovo should be independent or remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.

Lutfi Haziri, head of the ethnic Albanian delegation, said independence was coming. But Serbian President Boris Tadic said in Belgrade that talks should focus on improving the lives of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority.

The U.N. has administered the province since 1999, after NATO launched air attacks to stop a crackdown on independence-minded ethnic Albanians by then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s Serb forces.