The U.S. ambassador to Serbia says an attack last month by armed Serbs on a village in northern Kosovo has proved “quite harmful” to the dialogue process between Serbia and Kosovo, but he says investigations into the attack are under way and there is still an opportunity to get the process back on track.
Ambassador Christopher Hill spoke with RFE/RL on October 27, one day after the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia met separately with EU leaders in Brussels but failed to make any progress on restarting the dialogue process.
Hill said the attack on September 24 in Banjska had interrupted the dialogue process and compounded an already difficult situation.
The attack involved some 30 armed Serbs who stormed the village and barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery. Police recaptured the monastery after a shoot-out in which three attackers and a Kosovar police officer were killed.
Hill said he had not expected the talks in Brussels to achieve great success, but he had anticipated an effort to get back to the essential elements of the dialogue.
“Right now, though, it's clear it has not solved all the problems that remain in the dialogue,” he said.
Asked whether a new dialogue process should be implemented, Hill said he would not second guess the process that the European Union has established, noting that it has receive a lot of attention from senior leadership within the EU.
"The real question is the substance of the dialogue. Can we get to a situation where Serbs in Kosovo feel comfortable with their surroundings and have some kind of association of Serb municipalities? And secondly, can Pristina achieve what they want, which is a clearer path to more internationalization?" Hill said.
He said he hoped the talks that took place in Brussels will provide an inspiration for the future, adding that it's "too early to claim somehow failure in this.”
Hill also praised EU Special Envoy Miroslav Lajcak for his efforts to foster the dialogue process.
He said he was pleased that Lajcak was able to get the attention of senior EU officials, adding that the best approach is to support Lajcak to make sure his efforts are ultimately successful.
“These things don't happen in the time frame that everyone wants them to happen, and especially when you have major impediments such as what happened in Banjska,” Hill said.
Since the events of September 24, Kosovo has accused Serbia of orchestrating the “act of aggression” and claims that Belgrade intended to annex northern Kosovo after the attack. Serbia has denied the allegations and said it suspected an ethnic Serb leader from Kosovo, Milan Radoicic, was responsible for the clashes.
Hill noted that Radoicic through his attorney has taken some responsibility for what happened. He said he understands that Radoicic is in Serbia and has been told not to leave and to expect a criminal process. Both sides have launched investigations, Hill said, adding that there “needs to be a full accounting of what happened.”
Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic traveled to Brussels on October 26 for separate talks with European leaders that ended with no sign of progress despite efforts from France, Italy, and Germany to help them bridge their differences.
Shortly after the talks ended, Kurti and Vucic began trading blame for the lack of progress. Kosovo said Kurti was ready to sign the Basic Agreement for the normalization of relations with Serbia reached in February, but Serbia was not. The agreement includes the formation of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities.
Vucic said there had been "no question of signing or not signing” at the Brussels meeting and said Serbia wants to implement all the agreements signed with the authorities in Kosovo.
Serbia is ready for the formation of the association, Vucic said, but Serbia still does not accept Kosovo's membership in international organizations, including the United Nations, nor its independence.