Nobel Peace Prize winner Ahtisaari on Kosovo

(9 Dec 2008) SHOTLIST 1. Main boulevard leading to Royal Palace festooned with Nobel Peace Prize banners 2. Nobel Peace Prize banner hanging in street against backdrop of Christmas lights 3. Various of children on skating rink in centre of Oslo 4. Exterior of Norwegian Nobel Institute 5. Statue of Alfred Nobel outside institute 6. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari (with red tie) entering new conference, walking past media 7. Media in room 8. Side view of Ahtisaari sitting down, being photographed 9. SOUNDBITE (English) Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel Peace Prize laureate: "First of all, I am very pleased that the EULEX has started and is starting and spreading throughout the Kosovo's territory in the light of the arrangements that have been made. Kosovo is independent, it will remain independent. It has been recognised by over 50 countries, but more important, countries that represent I think, I'm not terribly wrong if I say 65-70 percent of the world economy." 10. Reporters at news conference 11. SOUNDBITE (English) Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel Peace Prize laureate: "Serbia has before they come to the point when they can actually qualify to become an (EU) member state, because process is still going on, they have to be able to live with their past and recognise that something went terribly wrong in their relationship, among other things, in their relationship with Kosovo." 12. Wide of news conference STORYLINE Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari said on Tuesday that Serbia must recognise past wrongs in its relationship with Kosovo before it is ready to join the European Union. The former Kosovo envoy said the Serbs "have to be able to live with their past." Serbia ignored Kosovo's declaration of independence earlier this year, which was endorsed by more than 50 countries. Ahtisaari spoke to reporters in Oslo on Tuesday, a day before the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. The 71-year-old is scheduled to accept the award on Wednesday for decades of peace efforts, including a 2005 deal in Aceh province that ended fighting between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement rebels. Ahtisaari said he supported all Balkan nations entering the EU, but that Serbia must first "recognise that something went terribly wrong" in the way it dealt with Kosovo. He added that he was "very pleased" that the EU was on Tuesday taking over responsibility for policing in Kosovo from the United Nations. The EU deployment, known as EULEX, is the EU's most ambitious police mission outside its borders and will rely strongly on NATO peacekeepers for protection. More than 2,000 police and justice workers are monitoring and advising Kosovo's authorities on tackling corruption and organised crime. The deployment has been criticised by both sides of Kosovo's ethnic divide. Kosovo's Serb minority rejects the EU deployment, as most EU member states supported Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia earlier this year. Ethnic Albanians fear that the EU made too many concessions to Serb leaders in a bid to garner their support, and fear that these will lead to Serbia having a say over Kosovo's affairs in areas where Serbs live, eventually splitting the country along ethnic lines. Following Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia on February 17, Serbs clashed with international forces in riots that left one Ukrainian peacekeeper dead and injured more than 30 NATO-led peacekeepers, most of them French. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...