Model

BERLIN/MUNICH The Munich ,,Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung"(CAP - center for applied political science) demands that Serbia, once and for all, cede its southern province Kosovo and transfer all its sovereign rights over the region to the United Nations. In the meantime politicians of the opposition parties, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) demand a ,,resolution of this issue as quickly as possible."According to Michael Glos, CSU member of the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), the attempt to ,,bring together the hostile ethnic groups of Serbs and Albanians"is ,,fiction": ,,Multicultural societies"are ,,a very difficult venture which Germany should not select as a model."

CAP, one of the most important German think tanks in the area of foreign policy, demands in a just published study that Belgrade's sovereignty over the southern Serbian province Kosovo should be ,,ended". 1)For this reason CAP demands lifting of UN resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999 and transfering ,,complete sovereignty"over the area to the United Nations. The Serb speaking minority in Kosovo would have to negotiate for its autonomous right with Pristina.

Ethnic separation

Meanwhile, the CDU and CSU opposition pleads for a ,,resolution of this issue as soon as possible."According to the current position of the CDU/CSU faction, Berlin has to commit itself to ,,a comprehensible, realistic framework for action"which ,,would open clear prospects for all of Kosovo's ethnic groups."As early as 1999 the former foreign policy speaker of the largest German opposition faction, Lamers, demanded that ,,the fiction"of a multi-ethnic Kosovo be dropped. At that time, Lamers pleaded for separation of Kosovo into a smaller Serbian and a larger Albanian part.

,,No more Serbs"

While Berlin's opposition voices demand ethnic separation in Kosovo, the Serb-Orthodox diocese Rashka-Prizren severely criticizes the German KFOR commandant, Holger Kammerhoff, and the German KFOR soldiers stationed in Prizren. The diocese explained that the German troops had not responded sufficiently during the anti-Serbian pogroms and had allowed ,,all of the remaining Christian-orthodox heritage to disappear overnight,"declaring: ,,What the Albanians did not accomplish during the era of Nazi Germany, they managed under the German troops of the so-called peace mission". An Austrian Lt. Colonel reported after the pogroms: ,,Now, there are no more Serbs in Prizren."

1) See also earlier article German administrator calls territorial integrity of Yugoslavia into question

See also earlier article Maximum Split

Sources:
Kosovo's Fifth Anniversary. On the Road to Nowhere?; www.cap.uni-muenchen.de März 2004
Ruck/Helias: Rot-gruen muss Kurs im Kosovo korrigieren; Pressemitteilung der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion 23.03.2004
Glos aeussert Zweifel an Kosovo-Politik. ,,Nato-Einsatz beruht auf einer Fiktion"; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 24.03.2004
Schwere Vorwuerfe der Orthodoxen gegen deutsche KFOR-Truppen; APA 25.03.2004
In Prizren gibt es keine Serben mehr; Der Standard 25.03.2004


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