The Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, has suggested his scenario to settle the Kosovo issue. He invites the Albanian leaders to allow Serbia annex the northern territories of the republic in exchange for a long-term truce with Belgrade. However, Dodik admits that the division is being opposed not only in Pristina but in Serbia as well. The local authorities, the people there and the church still insist that Kosovo is a part of Serbia.
Milorad Dodik has become the first Serbian politician over the past few years who has publicly spoken in favor of Kosovo's separation from the rest territories inhabited by 2 million of Albanians. But actually there is nothing new about the idea. First it was discussed long before 2008, when the Albanian leaders of Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed the province's independence from Serbia. An expert on the Balkan Crisis, Yelena Guskova, comments...
"The idea of division was first announced in early 1960s by the prominent Serbian writer Dobrica Cosic. In the 1990s it was repeated by President of Yugoslavia, Milosevic, who even drew on the map how this all should be, with the greatest number of monasteries being on the Serbian territory. But then the idea was not backed. Today each of the sides has opposite approaches to the problem, that is why achieving a compromise is still a difficult task".
An expert for the Institute of Religion and Politics, Georgy Engelgardt, thinks Belgrade will hardly back the idea of division...
"All major monasteries and monuments which make Kosovo so dear for Serbia are located in southern parts of the region, mainly inhabited by Serbs. That is why the proposal made by Milorad Dodik can hardly be accepted in Belgrade".
Of course, the division of Kosovo could improve regional relations. Some politicians in Pristina back the idea of exchange if Serbia abandons its control over the Presevo Valley. However, the expert warns against considering Mr. Dodik`s proposal as a change in the official Belgrade's policy.
Moscow commented on the Kosovo issue in summer of 2007. The Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the division would be a good idea if it was approved by Belgrade and most ethnic Albanians. But soon Kosovo's parliament declared independence from Serbia, and Belgrade and Pristina would never start the talks again.
However, the sides are very likely to resume negotiations during a conference on the Balkan states` accession to the European Union in Slovenia on 20 March.
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