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11:33, February 15, 2008

Serbia and Russia called on the UN Security Council Thursday to reject a unilateral declaration of independence by the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo.

At the request of Serbia and Russia, the 15 council members, along with dozens of other delegates permitted, held a closed-door meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the situation in Kosovo. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic attended the council meeting.

Speaking to reporters after the session, Jeremic said he had told the council that there was “an imminent threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty” of Serbia.

“We asked the Security Council to join us in defense of the UN Charter, of Security Council resolution 1244, of all the basic principles of international law and … to make annul or void any potential, illegal declaration of independence” on behalf of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, Jeremic said.

He said the meeting gave him “great comfort” because a majority of the council members were supportive of continued talks between Belgrade and Pristina.

“They believe that it is only through peaceful negotiation that we can find solutions to the difficult problems,” Jeremic said.

“Serbia is prepared to continue its peaceful engagement of the process of finding a compromise solution to future status of our sovereign province of Kosovo,” he said.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister warned that Serbia will not hesitate from using “all political, all diplomatic, and all economic measures” to reverse any seceding moves from the ethnic Albanians.

But “Serbia is not going to use force, and this is the commitment that Serbia has had,” he added.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he also urged the council to declare “null and void” of a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

“There was not a single member of the Security Council other than those from the United States and countries from the European Union (EU) which voiced clear-cut support for this course of action,” Churkin said.

The majority of the council members were calling for continued talks between concerned parties and a negotiated solution, he said.

“So this should give a pause for those who are rushing into unilateral steps,” Churkin said.

He stressed that a unilateral declaration of independence by Pristina would be illegal and any effort by the EU to deploy its mission without consent of the Security Council would have “no legal foundation at all.”

The Russian envoy appealed for continued international efforts to help concerned parties find a solution, “which would be based on international law and which would resolve this matter without destabilizing the Balkans and the region.”

Kosovo has been under UN administration since mid-1999, after NATO launched an air strike campaign to drive out Serbian forces from the province.

In April 2007, UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari recommended proposed internationally supervised independence for Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians made up most of its population.

The Ahtisaari plan was supported by the United States and the EU, but opposed by Serbia and Russia, a traditional Serb ally.

Source: Xinhua