PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, Dec 10 (AFP) - The United Nations chief in Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, on Wednesday unveiled a roadmap of democratic reform that the province must achieve before its final status can be discussed.
The "Standards for Kosovo" document sets goals in areas such as the return of ethnic minority refugees, economic reform and the rule of law.
"In a sense this document represents a choice... Achieve the standards and the international community will in due course make the necessary decisions to consider Kosovo's final status," Holkeri said at a ceremony to launch the roadmap.
"Fail them, and Kosovo will remain stuck, backward, left behind perhaps for decades to come."
Former Finnish prime minister Holkeri was joined by Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi and international dignitaries at the unveiling ceremony.
"Commitment to achieving standards is commitment towards Kosovo's final status in accordance to the will of its citizens," Rexhepi said.
UN representatives will meet regularly with Kosovo officials in a joint effort to implement the standards, whose progress will be assessed by the UN Security Council, officials said.
Implementation of the plan will serve as a basis for an assessment by mid-2005 of the southern Serbian province's readiness to engage in talks about its final legal status -- either independence or autonomy within Serbia.
Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since NATO warplanes forced Serbian forces under then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw in 1999, ending their brief but bloody conflict with separatist ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
The province's Albanian majority wants full independence from Belgrade, while the minority Serbs want to see it remain part of Serbia.
Under Security Council Resolution 1244, which governs all actions of the UN mission here, the province's final status will be decided by the council only once standards of multi-ethnic democracy have been met.
Among other things, the roadmap released Wednesday calls for an end to crimes "rooted in extremism or terrorism" and demands the police, judiciary and penal system to "fully respect human rights."
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders, who took power after the international intervention in the province, have long complained that the UN has not provided a mechanism by which they can measure their progress.
But a UN official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the standards were not meant to be taken literally.
"They describe an ideal society and very few societies live up to that ideal," the official said.
"It's a political document, not an exam paper. Some things are not measurable and in some cases it's a judgement."
nq/smc/jah
Copyright (c) 2003 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 12/10/2003 09:34:15
