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Vienna, Jan 25, 2006 – The coordinator of the South East Europe Stability Pact, Erhard Busek, said Kosovo will certainly be independent in the future, but that an independent Montenegro might become “a blind spot” of the Balkans where crime would flourish.
“I do not hide my personal opinions. There has to be independence once, but not now,” the former Austrian vice-chancellor said in an interview to the Austrian Internet youth news site Chili.
He said one should not expect too much from negotiations on the future of Kosovo, scheduled to begin in Vienna in February. “If an agreement on a time frame is reached by the end of this year, that would be an extremely good result,” Busek said.
“At this moment, all indicators show that nothing is moving and that the sides are digging in deeper,” the chief of the Stability Pact explained.
Asked if the independence of Kosovo would also include the right of Kosovo -Albanians to unite with Albania if they want it, Busek answered: “I think that this isn’t a topic at all. This was always only brought in from outside. The Kosovo Albanians are not interested to become a part of Albania at all, because they are convinced that they are developed much further than Albania.
ECIKS