Hats off!
International institutions of all sorts come in for so much criticism in Washington these days I thought I would take a moment off from the usual bashing. Compliments are due to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), its head of mission in Kosovo Ambassador Werner Almhofer, and his deputy (my colleague and friend) Ed Joseph, for a small, serious and highly positive contribution to stability and peace in the Balkans.
The occasion was the recent presidential election in Serbia, which completed its second round yesterday (yes, I’ve got a piece drafted on its results, but my traveling co-author needs a chance to read it before we go to print). Serbs throughout Kosovo were entitled to vote, but it was not obvious how to enable them to do so. Pristina is none too happy these days with Belgrade’s monkeying around in north Kosovo, and Belgrade had to ensure that Serbs could vote throughout Kosovo in a way that did not put in doubt the results.
Enter a last-minute negotiated solution via the OSCE, the only viable alternative. In record time (I’m told 5 days!) it managed the electoral process in a way that seems to have satisfied both Pristina and Belgrade.
Anyone who wants to hear how this is done can attend Ed’s talk at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, his perch before going off to Pristina, Friday 10-11:30 in room 500 at 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW (BOB to the cognescenti). I won’t be there, as I’m headed Thursday for Istanbul, then Pristina next week. But Ed is a really good speaker and has a great tale to tell!
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Yes, 5 days is what the papers were reporting.
There were two rounds to these elections – the Belgrade papers were all over them in the first series, hoping to find something scandalous to report. The polls opened an hour late in a couple of places (customs insisted on examining each box of election materials, slowing things down, Serb election personal arrived late someplace), some people reported feeling intimidated by the police at the edge of town checking ID’s – but if a group of Albanians had showed up to demonstrate?). This time – 2 weeks later – there wasn’t even that level of complaint.
These elections may end any talk of the importance of Kosovo in Serbian electoral politics – there simply aren’t enough voters there, and the turnout was only about 32% the presidential + parliamentary elections on the 7th and 23.54% yesterday for the runoff presidential election. The final national outcome was reported before the Kosovo votes were even counted. And in polls done before the election in Serbia on the importance of various issues, Kosovo ranked something like 6th, behind economic issues. Politicians may continue to genuflect to the idea of “saving Kosovo,” but when the economy is bad, people have more pressing concerns.
Wish I could make the talk – will anybody be reporting on it?