Belgrade rejects modified plan
Serbia’s high officials have rejected UN Envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s amended plan for Kosovo's status.
Thursday, 08.03.2007.
09:30
Belgrade rejects modified plan
The meeting of Belgrade negotiating team was held at the Serbian Governmet’s headquarters, chaired by Serbian PM Vojislav Koštunica. Serbian President and team’s co-chairman Boris Tadić also attended the meeting, alongside foreign minister Vuk Drašković and the rest of the team members.The report on the talks held in Vienna February 21 – March 2 has been adopted. It read that “Serbia constructively participated in Kosovo status talks in Vienna”.
The delegation that will represent Belgrade at the meeting in Vienna on March 10 will be headed by Boris Tadić, Vojislav Koštunica and Vuk Drašković.
The negotiators are set to meet with caucus chiefs and present their conclusions, touching on the contents of the amended Ahtisaari's plan. There will be no press releases following the meeting.
According to B92’s sources, Ahtisaari made the most notable changes to provisions about the adoption of a new constitution for Kosovo, where he accepted suggestions made by the team from Priština that will make this procedure easier.
The Serbian PM’s advisor Slobodan Samardžić told Radio Television Serbia earlier today that Ahtisaari essentially did not consent to any of the suggestions put forward by Belgrade. "He accepted several technical amendments, those that we cannot regard as very important. Our amendment proposals and remarks that pertain to Kosovo’s status, namely that counter the notion of establishing Kosovo as a new independent entity or state, were not accepted”, Samardžić said.
„We could say that the amended document is, more or less, of no significance from our point of view. It contains only a few trivial corrections to the first draft. Although I did not count them, my impression is that Ahtisaari has accepted more suggestions from Priština that from Belgrade“, he said.
In a guest appearance on TV B92, Vuk Jeremić, advisor to Serbian President Boris Tadić, conveyed president Tadić’s words to the European Troika in Brussels that Serbia would never recognize the independence of Kosovo.
"EU officials expressed understanding for this position. They also said that they supported the process lead by Marti Ahtisaari, essentially repeating the conclusions from the latest EU Minister’s Council meeting, where support was given to the phase of the process that will come after the negotiations mediated by Ahtisaari, which is a debate in the UN Security Council. The EU says that the future status of Kosovo can only be defined through a process that is concluded by a new UN Security Council resolution and this is something we agree with“, Jeremić said.
Priština satisfied
Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu said the negotiations team would take an official stand on Marti Ahtisaari’s amended plan.“The new proposal does not contain any substantial changes, which I think is very important”, he said.
Opposition leader Hasim Taqi reacted positively to the proposal, claiming that Ahtisaari’s amended plan contained the germs of a new Kosovo state.
UNMIK chief Joachim Ruecker said he only had time to skim through the text, adding that he thought it was still a good document that opened a path for Kosovo’s future and said we should soon expect a new phase in the status process.
“The focus of the international community will switch from Vienna to New York in the next few weeks, leaving behind the Vienna phase”, Ruecker said.
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