Constitutional Workshop

The Serbs were told on Tuesday, October 13, that peace once again had no alternative.  The Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic told the nation that a military intervention had been averted ("I want to inform you about the talks we held in the past few days") after the Kosovo conflict was resolved by peaceful and political means. "The agreements we reached have eliminated the danger of air strikes on our country", Milosevic said cheerfully to viewers throughout Yugoslavia on prime time news that evening.
Milosevic somehow failed to mention the 1998 referendum barring any foreign involvement in the Kosovo conflict, but did offer an explanation of the latest developments. "The agreements we reached are in full accordance with the interests of our country and all its citizens, as well as the entire population of Kosovo", he said.

A constitutional precedent has been made and it will most certainly effect further political developments in Serbia. The paradox is that the threat of an illegitimate military intervention, not approved by the UN Security Council, has been averted through the actions of an individual who shouldn't be in charge of the country's foreign policy. However, many experts will argue that under the circumstances, Milosevic had the authority and the competence, as the president of the Defense Council, to sign a peace treaty.
The military aspect of the treaty is very clear. The treaty envisages the arrival of 2,000 OSCE compliance verifiers as well as the presence of non-combat aircraft to monitor the situation on the ground. US envoy Richard Holbrooke told the press in Belgrade that a special agreement between NATO secretary general Xavier Solana, the organization's European Commander Wesley Clarke and the Yugoslav authorities would ratify the air verification treaty. It is very unlikely that anyone will complain about the fact that all this should not be happening, according to last spring's referendum that "ruled out" foreign participation in the Kosovo conflict.

Mr. Milosevic himself defined his paradoxical reign at the beginning of the Kosovo crisis, when he used a phrase implying that it didn't matter whether a decision was constitutional or not. With the excuse that force is the only language Milosevic understands, the Americans and their western allies threatened to attack this country, as it appears that they too understand  the language of force. By doing that, they actually lent support to Milosevic's "supra-constitutional" reign and ignored the Yugoslav constitution along with him. The long-term political consequences of this voluntary behaviour could have been disastrous, but observers will say that it's time to move on. Holbrooke also said that the treaty did not fully satisfy Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, but underscored its significance as a turning point in the conflict. Once again, there is no alternative to peace.
It has always been easy here to adjust the constitution to somebody's political will. Shortly after Milosevic addressed the nation on television, the Serbian government constructed a legal platform to bring the treaty into accordance with the Yugoslav and Serbian Constitutions. In doing so , the government explained that this has been done to put an end to violence, to protect the country's territorial integrity and to reaffirm the rights of all citizens.

The Serbian government promised to organize free, fair and OSCE-sponsored elections in Kosovo within nine months. It also promised to offer a comprehensive plan on Kosovo as of Octover 14 for arranging the status of Serbia's southern province. The government said it would regulate the OSCE verifiers' status on October 19 and adopt a platform for peace talks constructed by the Contact Group on October 2.

One of the Serbian Information Ministry's statements indicated that ethnic communities in Kosovo have extra rights that can't be exercised at the expense of other ethnic communities. This means that the government is acting according to one of Christopher Hill's papers, specifying that only democratic self-rule is entitled to adopt what he called the organic documents of Kosovo.

Adding up all the special rights given to the province and its ethnic communities leads to the conclusion that the effective goal of the treaty is to diminish central authority over Kosovo. The solution did not nullify the Serbian Constitution, but many of its basic regulations have been ignored and breached in the treaty's making. The provincial authorities have been given the opportunity to form its own governing bodies and to take part in Yugoslavia's foreign policy, in accordance with the country's Constitution. Kosovo will now have much broader but not "stronger" autonomy than the one provided by the 1974 constitution.

According to the present Serbian Constitution, the Statute is the highest level of provincial autonomy available. However, Kosovo had three separate ministries in the recent past - its own ministries of information, finance and agriculture. It also had a special coordinating body to deal with political issues.

The so-called interim Kosovo government, formed by Zoran Andjelkovic a week or so ago, following instructions by the Serbian Assembly, has not been given the mandate to adopt laws, but to implement executive decisions and prepare the elections. This legislative body should also coordinate the work of all civil authorities. Kosovo's temporary government has been formed to trace the path toward elections and to help in reaching a political solution to the conflict in Serbia's southern province.

It appears that Christopher Hill's document doesn't entitle the Serbian authorities to interfere with the work of Kosovo's governing bodies. The provincial authorities, on the other hand, won't be allowed to interfere with the work of Serbian authorities, with the Federal Government or the decisions made by other ethnic communities in accordance with the previously mentioned special rights. Effectively, it means that any kind of political subordination has been ruled out. The document contains some kind of mechanism eliminating the possibility of Kosovo's unilateral legitimate secession, as well as a unilateral suspension of the province's autonomy. The "newly-formed" territory will have its own parliament and executive authority. It will elect a representative (something like a president), a governing body, an administration and a supervisor who has authority to implement the agreement, and who will be named by the Yugoslav government. The representative, to be elected directly and given presidential powers, will have to coordinate his work with the National Council and the representatives of ethnic communities. This representative will probably be the most obvious reflection of future Albanian domination in Kosovo. The supervisor will be there to monitor the implementation of the peace treaty as protector of Kosovo's autonomy. This supervisor could later play a crucial role in preventing the domination of Kosovo's largest ethnic group, like Carlos Westendorp is doing in Bosnia.