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Vuk Jeremic: Serbia Will Never Recognize Kosovo Unilateral Secession

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  • Vuk Jeremic: Serbia Will Never Recognize Kosovo Unilateral Secession

    VUK JEREMIC: SERBIA WILL NEVER RECOGNIZE KOSOVO UNILATERAL SECESSION

    PanARMENIAN.Net
    12.03.2008 16:19 GMT+04:00

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ The situation on the ground in Kosovo has
    deteriorated since its Provisional Institutions of Self-Government
    declared independence last month, Serbia's Foreign Minister told the
    Security Council today, calling for Belgrade and Pristina to meet
    again to try to work out a different resolution to their dispute over
    Kosovo's status.

    Vuk Jeremic told a Council meeting that the "unilateral, illegal
    and illegitimate declaration of independence" had brought dangerous
    consequences to both the region and to global affairs, including
    "a direct assault on the innate operating logic of the international
    system."

    He said "those 20-something countries that furthered the secessionist
    cause of the Kosovo Albanians [by recognizing the declaration of
    independence] have contributed to making the international system
    more unstable, more insecure, and more unpredictable" as they were
    legitimizing the doctrine of imposing solutions to ethnic conflicts.

    "It supplies any ethnic or religious group with a grievance against
    its capital with a play book on how to achieve their ends."

    Stressing that Serbia would never recognize Kosovo's unilateral
    secession, Mr. Jeremic called for the 1999 Security Council resolution
    that placed Kosovo under UN administration to be observed in full.

    "This is the only way to prevent a further deterioration of the
    situation on the ground. There must be no erosion" of the mandates
    of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), he said,
    adding that no further transfers of competencies from UNMIK to another
    body be allowed to take place.

    Serbia's representative said his country was "committed to open
    dialogue and good-faith negotiation with all," including on issues
    such as the Kosovo Serb population and the Serbian Orthodox Church
    in Kosovo.

    "Every day that goes by without working towards some sort of agreement
    creates unsustainable hopes, irrational fears, and dangerous,
    uncoordinated outcomes on the ground."

    He said Serbia would not impose an embargo on Kosovo or resort to
    force and he apologized for the damage to foreign embassies caused
    by protesters in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, on 21 February.

    "It is in our vital interest that all of Kosovo's communities prosper -
    and prosper together in peace, security and reconciliation as neighbors
    in a progressive society of hope and forgiveness."

    After Mr. Jeremic's briefing, Council members then went into
    consultations on the issue. Belgrade and Pristina have been unable
    to reach agreement on Kosovo's status, which had been the subject of
    months of negotiations led by the troika, comprising the European
    Union, Russia and the United States. That group was set up after a
    stalemate emerged over a proposal by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's
    Special Envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, for a phased process of independence
    for Kosovo, the UN news center reports.
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