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fry but within an international framework. 460 This report advised
that the international community take responsibility for an initial
security guarantee and for overseeing the protection of minority
rights to integrate Kosovo into an effective Stability Pact—an eu initiative
to develop a comprehensive and long-term conflict prevention
mechanism for southeastern Europe.
The report also indicated that the status of conditional independence
would have to be reached through an “internal agreement”
between representatives of the international community in
Kosovo and the Kosovo majority as well as representatives of ethnic
minorities, and in an “external agreement” negotiated with Kosovo’s
neighbors. The external agreement would eventually include the
Serbian government; in the meantime, a refusal by the Serbian government
to engage in dialogues would not constitute a veto on the
process.
THE CHANGE IN THE WESTERN APPROACH
Due to the Serbs’ unwillingness to participate in Kosovo’s development,
no major progress was made in integrating Serbs into
Kosovar institutions. The Albanian population grew ever more frustrated.
After eleven Albanians and six Serbs were killed and thousands
were displaced from their homes in a few days of rioting in
March 2004, the international community was forced to rethink its
approach toward Kosovo. Aware of the situation’s complexity, the
international community refrained from black-and-white analyses.
Its decision to accelerate the resolution of the Kosovo issue derived
from the realization that the status quo—which the Serbs had advocated—was
unsustainable, and from concern that radicals on both
sides would otherwise attempt to resolve the issue by violence.
460 Independent International Commission on Kosovo: Kosovo
Report , Oxford University Press, 2001, pp . 9–10 .