ICJ Today - Post Decision

(EULEX, KP, and KFOR on the north side of the bridge)

The town of Mitrovica was relatively quiet; there was one protest with around 1,000 people further north of the city with no violence. This group did not make it to the main bridge where KP, EULEX, and KFOR stood tall. (And by not making it to the bridge or inciting violence means it was a quiet day! Again I missed this protest because I did not venture that far into Mitrovica North, only just a few blocks over the bridge.) There were groups of people (mostly Kosovar Serbs) standing around the bridge and along the main street, waiting to see if something was stirring up (as of 6pm, nothing did).

The south side, which is predominately Kosovar Albanian, was more lively, with cars driving around with flags (Albanian, Kosovo, United States, Germany, Sweden mainly) in the windows and honking their horns. There were also kids with vuvuzelas, which became quite infamous at the World Cup in South Africa. Fortunately there were no provocations from the south side and the cars did not get close to the bridge.

So what's next? Basically Serbia still will not recognize Kosovo's independence and will argue Kosovo will always be within its territorial integrity. Serbia will now dispatch diplomats to 55 different countries to present its point of view on this decision as well as the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting in September to try to draft a resolution on Kosovo's status (this will be much harder now that the ICJ ruled in favor of Kosovo). For Kosovo, I have heard that there is a possibility that 3-4 countries will recognize Kosovo tonight, and another 36 or so countries will recognize Kosovo over the coming months. Kosovo hopes to have over 100 recognitions by the General Assembly meeting, aiming for the 120 recognition threshold (1/3) which is needed to be a member of the UN. Kosovo will also need China and Russia not to veto Kosovo's acceptance into the UN, which most likely will not happen. This all remains to be seen, but all in all it was a good day for all of Kosovo.