Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: News

Even though most of Kosovo's residents celebrated the country's independence last week, the region's break from Serbia and Russia is not a guarantee of "a picture-perfect happy ending."

Instead, William Montgomery, a former ambassador to the region, said Kosovo's newfound freedom is an increasingly complicated situation that is going to require communication and compromise.

"Despite all of our efforts, still today, the Balkans region is still an unstable one," Montgomery told a group of U students, professors and community members Tuesday. Montgomery, who spoke at the Hinckley Institute of Politics, has been a columnist since he retired in 2004. He is a former career diplomat and U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro.

He spoke about the Balkans region, specifically Kosovo, which proclaimed its independence in defiance of Serbia and Russia and condemned its status as a new country. However, that is only one of the issues the country's government is worrying about, he said.

Montgomery gave a list of obstacles the new government faces, including a "basket-case economy and an under-educated and under-trained work force."

Uygar Aktan, a graduate student in Middle East studies and political science, agreed with Montgomery "that it was the start of a new and difficult chapter" in the region.

However, the biggest obstacle will be angry Serbs, Montgomery said.

"This means different things for different people," he said. "Kosovo Albanians are celebrating right now while Serbs are very bitter about it and determined that it won't stand. If those in favor of Kosovo's independence think that granting the Serbs some leeway to vent will allow the anger to just go away, they are terribly wrong."

The country's independence comes more than 10 years after a bloody separatist war with Serbian forces that claimed 10,000 lives, according to The Associated Press.

Montgomery said Kosovo's declaration could have implications for Russia's relationship with the United States and the European Union. At the time of Montgomery's address, the United States, as well as prominent EU members France and Germany, had acknowledged Kosovo's independence, but Russia, a veto-wielding member in the U.N. Security Council, had not.

"Russia won't allow this to go around its U.N. veto," he said, adding that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is "deliberately looking for situations to clash with the U.S., insisting that Russia be respected unlike in the '90s during the regions last period of unrest."

Montgomery said the region's best chance for compromise might come through the EU, whose desirable, but strict, membership might encourage powers in the region to come up with a workable, nonviolent solution. Such a resolution would sit well with audience members who questioned the need for U.S. involvement.

"(I wish) the U.S. would take care of the U.S. and not get into other countries' business," said Robert Steele, a senior in organizational communication.

Despite his uncertainty, Montgomery expressed optimism in the region's future.

"The history of the Balkans is alive in a way that it's not here," he said.


d.roberts@chronicle.utah.edu

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