Kosovo: A State Stuck in Purgatory

A few days ago, I was helping my friend push his 1998 Renault across the Macedonian side of the Macedonia-Serbia border. The car had overheated just before the checkpoint. After we’d pulled over, some border guards suggested that we just push it through.

This probably wouldn’t fly while, say, trying to enter the US or the European Union, but in the Balkans there’s an overarching philosophy that if an object, situation or person is broken, you should just muddle through. It’ll work out in the end. And it did. We made it across and the car eventually started. But we were in the situation to begin with because of Kosovo’s disputed status.

My friend and I were doing what’s known in Kosovo as a “stamp run.” It’s a real term used to describe a trip that starts in Kosovo, heading south into Macedonia, east and north to Serbia and then west, back to Kosovo. The sole purpose of the theoretically five-hour-trip is to get a Serbian entry stamp on a passport, which allows travel to or through Serbia directly from Kosovo, cutting down on travel time significantly. Our trip took 10 hours, probably negating the time we’ll save in our future travels.

We needed this Serbian entry stamp in the first place because Serbia still considers Kosovo its sovereign territory. It views any entry into Kosovo via its international borders or airport as an illegal entry into Serbia. So if you try to enter Serbia from one of its “administrative boundaries” (what Serbia calls its borders with Kosovo), you’ll likely be turned away.

The stamp issue dates back to when Kosovo came under UN administration after the war ended in 1999. Its among countless problems that have cropped up — especially since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 — that come back to the central issue of Kosovo existing in a purgatory of sorts.

Serbia lost Kosovo in 1999, a situation ensured by a ongoing NATO troop presence. Kosovo’s independence has the backing of the US and most of the EU. By last count, 91 of 193 UN member states recognize it.

Among those who don’t are Serbia and its ally Russia, which holds veto power on the Security Council, thus making Kosovo’s UN membership a pipe dream.

This situation is the foundation of why Majlinda Kelmendi can’t compete in the Summer Olympics as a Kosovar. Absent a UN membership, Kosovo has no solid footing for entrance into key international entities. But thanks to continued resistance from Russian-backed Serbia, Kosovo can’t partake of most of the trappings of statehood.

Phones here use one of three dialing codes — from Monaco, Slovenia or Serbia — because Kosovo can’t get a code of its own from the International Telecommunication Union. Flights to or from Pristina International Airport are pricier because they can’t fly over Serbia. And the only sure way to get international mail is to have the address include a “via Albania,” because mail often gets sent via Serbia, which just sends it back.

All of these problems could be remedied in short order if Serbia were to just recognize Kosovo’s statehood. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

There are plenty of precedents for partially recognized states to participate internationally as sovereign entities. The Palestinian Territories, whose independence is recognized by 130 UN member states, has its own, fully recognized Olympic Committee, which is sending three athletes to London under the Palestinian flag.

Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia’s national and spiritual mythos, and any Serbian leader intent on a successful career wouldn’t suggest otherwise. But Serbia’s previous government, under Boris Tadic, started removing — albeit very slowly — some of the barriers to Kosovo existing with a degree of normalcy, such as agreeing to allow Kosovo to represent itself in some international bodies with an asterisk next to its name to indicate its disputed status. But Tadic is gone, and Serbia’s new government is being led by nationalists who aren’t likely to make life easier for the like of Majlinda Kelmendi and other Kosovars.

So even as the international community’s oversight over Kosovo is slated to end in September, its pains over sovereignty aren’t likely to follow suit.

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