Daily: Plan for N. Kosovo has failed

6 January 2011 | 12:58 | Source: Tanjug

PRIŠTINA -- A plan announced a year ago by the Kosovo Albanian government and the the International Civilians Office (ICO) is dead, writes a Priština daily. Koha Ditore reports that the plan "produced no results thus far". Its goal was to "integrate the northern part and establish the authority of the Kosovo institutions in that part of the country". But the area is predominantly inhabited by Serbs, who reject the authority of the Kosovo Albanian government of Priština, along with the Kosovo Albanian unilateral declaration of independence made three years ago. The plan in question was also rejected by official Belgrade. Now the Albanian language newspaper notes that both the government in Priština and the ICO are saying they have not given up on the plan. The Priština government named a coordinator and opened an office, but failed to form working groups that would implement it. At the same time, writes Koha Ditore, the government did not set aside funds in order to implement the plan, and it "did not shut down the UNMIK office in the north". On the other hand, "the international community" managed to open the EU House and increase the presence of EULEX in the north, but, says the newspaper, "it did not combat parallel Serb structures, did not reopen courts and did not expand the rule of law in that part of Kosovo". "The only achievement is the opening of a local office that is issuing documents of the Republic of Kosovo to the citizens who show interest, while the ICO has set up a team that is working on forming a new municipality in the northern part of (Kosovska) Mitrovica," concluded Koha Ditore.