Translation provided by KoSSev
French daily newspaper Le Monde has published two articles on the possible exchange of territories between Belgrade and Pristina, as well as a Kosovo map showing their interpretation on what the „border change“ would look like.
Le Monde also pointed out that the „ethnic mosaic, key infrastructure and cultural objects are obstacles to the project of redefining the borders“.
The Parisian daily, in the first article, underlines that „the exchange of territories based on pure ethnic criteria is worrisome“ and that „ethics and pragmatism are colliding in the debate on the possible border change between the two sides“.
The newspaper also published an explanation of French geographer Michel Foucher, who says that „there is no need to mix the immunity and the inviolability of the borders“.
„The borders are immune from the point of view of international law, that is, they cannot be questioned by force, but they are not inviolable: they can be changed if both sides reach an agreement,“ Foucher says.
This principle, which was recognized in 1975 at the Helsinki Conference of the USSR and Westerners, and ceremonially presented in 1990 by the Charter of Paris, enabled German unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Le Monde underlined.
„Between 1989 and 1992, 22 new borders were established, 11,149 kilometers long, in Europe – including Ukraine and Belarus,“ Michel Foucher estimated.
The Paris newspaper notes that, however, in the case of territorial exchanges between Belgrade and Pristina, new boundaries would be drawn, for the first time, on a purely ethnic basis, and not on the former administrative lines of the constituent republics or autonomous regions of the former Yugoslavia.
This novelty, as the analysis notes, has awakened caution in most observers in the region where ethnic issues remain very much alive.
In the second article, Le Monde writes that the re-establishment of the borders in the Western Balkans has been presented as a stability solution after 20 years of frozen conflicts, but it also emphasizes that residents of relevant zones are afraid of another „ethnic cleansing“.
The Parisian daily also tweeted a map of Kosovo, which reads: „Between Kosovo and Serbia, ethnic mosaic, key infrastructures and cultural objects are obstacles to the project of redefining the borders.“
Not a bad map from today’s Le Monde (some errors and omissions on the regional map) of what’s at stake in the #Serbia #Kosovo land swap idea pic.twitter.com/FnXMB1gZyK
— Srdjan Cvijic (@srdjancvijic) 23 September 2018
The map shows how a new „border between Serbia and Kosovo“ would look like – the northern part of Kosovo, with Serb municipalities Leposavic, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Mitrovica, would be joined to Serbia, while the territory of Medvedja and “Presevo Valley” in Serbia, inhabited by the Albanian majority, would belong to Kosovo.
In the graphic representation, Le Monde presented, using different colors, their own interpretation of the territories inhabited by Serbs and territories with a visible Albanian majority.
The four municipalities with a Serb majority in the north of Kosovo are presented in the map, which are said to be „out of control, not legally regulated and are prey to mafia“.
Le Monde also says, on the map, that residents of the north of Kosovo do not pay taxes or electricity bills, and that 99.7% of them did not recognize the legitimacy of the authorities in Pristina in the 2012 referendum.
Mitrovica is described on the map as a city-symbol of ethnic divisions, while Lake Gazivode is a key factor for the Kosovo water supply, but it is emphasized that its ownership rights are controversial and that it is located at the „border with Serbia“.
Two main thermal power plants are also shown, whose cooling is dependent on Lake Gazivode. The Trepca mine was also presented, for which the French daily news paper states that Belgrade has a prior claim to it and that the mine is managed by two different entities – the Kosovo Albanian entity and the Serb entity.
For Medvedja, in the territory of Serbia, Le Monde says that Kosovo President Hashim Thaci is seeking the merger of that municipality to Kosovo, but that the majority of the Albanian population has already left Medvedja.
The map of Le Monde also shows that the “Presevo Valley”, in the territory of Serbia, defies the central government.
Prizren was shown as significant for the Serbian Orthodox Church, with the reminder that the Serbs consider Kosovo as the cradle of their nation and religion.
Le Monde stated that the sources for the map were the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, Statistical Office of Serbia and the World Bank.
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