Negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia from Rambouillet to Independence 1999-2008

Abstract

We agree that we disagree this may be the summary finding of almost the entire Kosovo-Serbia negotiating process on the final status of Kosovo. The basic purpose of this paper consists with a need that through the chronology of the Kosovo-Serbia negotiations to present some of the new experience, failures, or recommendations arising from these negotiations not only for the direct participants in the these talks but also for the international organizations and diplomacy that were the initiators, the organizers and the facilitators of the said negotiations. The paper begins with the 1999 Rambouillet Conference, continues with the elaboration of the 17 rounds of these negotiations and 25 expert level meetings initially organized by the United Nations Security Council through the Special Envoy Mr. Martti Ahtisaari and his UNOSEK office, and later by the Contact Group through "Three": Frank Vizner, as US representative, Wolfgang Ischinger as EU representative and Alexander Bocan-Harcenko as the representative of Russia. At the end of the paper, the last phase of the negotiations is reflected when the International Community in particular the United States estimated that this way of negotiations cannot bring the outlined conclusions and decided not to obstruct Kosovo through its Parliament on February 17, 2008 to unilaterally announce its Independence ...!