Nobel recipient boosts Kosovo

Finland ex-leader sees independence

OSLO - Former president Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, who is scheduled to receive the Nobel Peace Prize here today in recognition of a long career mediating conflicts around the globe, tried yesterday to shore up support for Kosovo's claim to independence in the face of opposition from Russia and Serbia.

"Kosovo is independent and it will remain independent," he said, adding, "The progress there is irreversible."

Even as Ahtisaari spoke, UN officials in Kosovo were handing over civilian law enforcement responsibilities to the European Union and local authorities in Pristina, the capital.

"As of this morning, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo will no longer perform police or justice functions," a United Nations spokesman, Alexander Ivanko, said from Pristina. "We will remain here in a much downsized version, doing political monitoring and reporting."

For the United States and most countries in Europe, the handover of police, justice, and customs oversight to the European Union is a considered a milestone on the road to universal recognition of Kosovo as a state, and potentially to its membership in the European Union. But Russia and Serbia insist that it is still a Serbian province. They have sought through the United Nations to conscribe the European Union's role to avoid the appearance of expanding independence.

Asked about the European Union's new function and the declining role of the UN mission after nine years of administering Kosovo, Ahtisaari said, "I think it's very welcome."

He said UN recognition, which would require Russia approval, remains a distant prospect, but added: "I think the Kosovo situation is moving forward. More countries will be recognizing it."

Ahtisaari has played a large role in Kosovo's journey from an oppressed province under President Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s to today's fledgling state.

In the spring of 1999, as NATO bombed Serbian military positions in the alliance's first sustained combat operation, Ahtisaari joined Viktor Chernomyrdin, a Russian envoy and former prime minister, in persuading Serbia to capitulate and withdraw its forces from Kosovo.

In late 2005, Kofi Annan, then the United Nations secretary general, appointed Mr. Ahtisaari to lead Kosovo's "final status" negotiations between Serbia and the ethnic-Albanian leadership in Pristina. Contentious negotiations ended without a deal in 2007, but Mr. Ahtisaari presented the Security Council with a draft plan for internationally supervised independence.