PACE passes resolution on Kosovo "favorable to Serbia"

PACE passes resolution on Kosovo "favorable to Serbia"

Head of the Serbian parliamentary delegation to PACE Aleksandra Djurovic told Tanjug that a plenary vote resulted in a resolution that is "favorable to Serbia" as all three amendments by Kosovo Albanians were rejected.

"The resolution is favorable to us and it contains much criticism regarding corruption and respect of human rights. The position of Mr. Conde and the Council of Europe (CoE) is that they insist on status neutrality and respect of values that the CoE deals with," Djurovic said.

The Kosovo Albanian side sought that the obligation to establish the Community of Serb Municipalities be dropped from the resolution, she said.

"An amendment whereby they wanted to alter the statement that UNESCO has rejected their membership bid and just state the result of the vote was also rejected. They also wanted to include a direct cooperation of Kosovo with Europol and Interpol, rather than through UNMIK, which is a part of the resolution," she said.

She noted that Kosovo Albanians wished to use the fact Conde is no longer a member of PACE to change the draft, but failed.

Anther member of Serbia's delegation, Zarko Obradovic, commended Conde's work on drafting the resolution, saying it was "a high quality document that deals with CoE standards in areas of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and appraises to what degree all these are respected in Kosovo."

He added that since neither Serbia nor the UN and a large number of CoE members recognize the so-called independence of Kosovo, he was "welcoming the status-neutral approach that Mr. Conde applied in drafting the resolution."

"The resolution states the numerous negative events and occurrences that Serbia has been pointing out to for 17 years, and that remain without an answer to this day," Obradovic stressed.

The full text of the resolution (link to a PDF file hosted on the PACE website)