Kosovo Albanians 'Losing Faith in Independence'

Pristina | 09 August 2010 | Lawrence Marzouk

Flags are sold in Pristina for the second anniversary of Kosovo`s independence

Kosovo Albanians are losing faith in their country’s recently declared independence, according to a poll by Gallup Balkan Monitor.

Following Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February 2008, a Gallup poll found 93 per cent of ethnic Albanians thought independence had ‘turned out to be a good thing’.

But this figure was only 74 per cent in a survey conducted last month, following the advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice on Kosovo, ICJ, on July 22 that the state's declaraton did not break international law.

The authors of the report wrote: “This reduction could have been due to the poor economic situation in the country rather than a feeling that independence had been a wrong step.”

The respected international pollster’s report, Focus on Kosovo’s Independence, published on August 5, compared current opinions in Kosovo and the region to those after independence.

According to the study, citizens of Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo felt the Balkans had become less stable as a result of the Kosovo-Serbia dispute, a view shared by ethnic Albanian minorities in Montenegro and Macedonia.

However, 88 per cent of respondents in Croatia and 77 per cent in Albania said they believed independence had been positive for the region.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, 58 per cent of citizens of the Federation, formed of Croats and Bosnian Muslims, believed Kosovo’s independence had been good for the Balkans, while in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska people were split, with the same proportion, 21 per cent, saying that it had had a positive and negative impact.

But the majority of people in both ethnic entities believed Kosovo’s independence could constitute a precedent for other separatist movements.

In the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, 43 per cent of people agreed that Kosovo’s independence had cleared the way for the secession of their entity. More than a third in Federation agreed.

Both Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo had also lost confidence in the idea that the two communities would live harmoniously together.

Belief that there wouldl be peaceful co-existence between ethnicities had fallen from 72 per cent to 60 per cent among ethnic Albanians and from 17 per cent to 12 per cent among Serbs.

Among Kosovo Serbs, the proportion feeling insecure rose from 85 per cent to 93 per cent.

About 38 per cent of Albanians and 58 per cent of Serbs believe the country would function without the presence of Kosovo’s top diplomat, Pieter Feith, who is the head of the International Civilian Office, which supervises independence, and the EU Special Representative.

Arbout two thirds of Serbs were also convinced the EU’s rule-of-law mission, EULEX, had not brought improvement and that EULEX was not doing a good job at maintaining security and stability in the territory.

But ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were more supportive of the mission, with almost half saying that EULEX was better than its predecessor UNMIK and doing a good job.

In Serbia, the Gallup poll found that while three quarters of Serbs felt personally concerned about the issue of Kosovo, 43 per cent believed Kosovo would remain independent regardless of Belgrade’s position.

About 70 per cent of Serbs are unwilling to accept Kosovo’s independence as a price for joining the EU.

The reports reads: “President Tadic is likely to take this as a mandate and retain his forthright position on the issue. Indeed, he is planning to go to the UN to seek a negotiated compromise on the future of the territory.”