While the talk may be of ‘border corrections’ and ‘land swaps’, one man in Kosovo has begun the preparatory work to demarcate the border between Serbia and its former southern province as it currently stands, and says the process should be simple.
Fresh from staking out Kosovo’s frontier with Montenegro, Shpejtim Mulliqi – head of Kosovo’s State Commission for Border Demarcation and Maintenance – was ordered last month by Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to do the same with the border with Serbia, regardless of what might be on the table in negotiations between the presidents of the two countries.
“There might be some claims,” Bulliqi told BIRN in an interview, “but there shouldn’t be any problem if there are no specific goals to obstruct the process.”
Whether Serbia plans to participate is another matter; Belgrade does not recognise Kosovo as independent, and while border demarcation should eventually follow from any political deal in European Union-mediated negotiations in Brussels, it is unlikely to happen soon.
