Serbia:Kosovo will declare independence a week from tomorrow, Serbia's minister for the restive province said yesterday, amid growing impatience among its 90 per cent Albanian population and signs of rising tension in the rest of Serbia.
"The Serbian government has received more and more significant information that [Kosovo prime minister] Hashim Thaci will illegally declare the unilateral independence of Kosovo on February 17th," said Slobodan Samardzic.
He was speaking after talks with Stefan Lehne, an envoy of EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, who was in Belgrade to discuss Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica's refusal to sign a co-operation pact with Brussels. "The EU cannot expect that just before the unilateral declaration of independence announced for the 17th of February, that Serbia itself signs for the independence of Kosovo," Mr Samardzic said.
A source close to Mr Thaci told The Irish Timesthat February 17th or 18th were the likely dates for an independence declaration, and would allow an EU foreign ministers' meeting on February 18th to give the green light for deployment of the bloc's 1,800-strong police and justice mission in Kosovo. A declaration by Kosovo's leaders on Sunday, February 17th, or the morning of February 18th would also prevent Russia calling an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, which does not convene on Sundays.
Moscow opposes sovereignty for Kosovo.
In Kosovo, Mr Thaci declined to name the date when his homeland would declare independence, having lived under UN rule since 1999, when Nato bombs ended a brutal Serb crackdown on separatist rebels.
"I can only confirm today that we have the confirmation from some 100 states which say they are ready to recognise Kosovo's independence immediately after we declare it," he said. "We will have a powerful and massive recognition."
Media in the province of two million people is alive with speculation about when and how independence will be declared and celebrated.
The fledgling Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra is rehearsing for a concert in which it will play the so-called EU anthem, Beethoven's Ode To Joy - but the ensemble has no idea when the concert will take place.
Mr Thaci's administration has allocated €1 million to the celebrations, with exhibitions and a fireworks display planned, but organisers are not sure when they will be told to launch the party.
The mood in northern Kosovo, where most of the region's 100,000 or so Serbs live, is darker.
Security is being increased in the town of Mitrovica, a potential flashpoint for trouble between Albanians and Serbs, who live on different sides of the Ibar river. Local Serb politicians have vowed to ignore the independence declaration.
In Belgrade yesterday, a small explosion struck a shopping mall owned by a firm from Slovenia - which as current EU president is seen by many Serbs as trying to "steal" Kosovo. It came the day after a nationalist gang attacked a Belgrade gallery showing work by artists from Kosovo. No one was hurt in either incident.
