"Unilateral independence means nothing to Serbia"

"Unilateral independence means nothing to Serbia"

“I believe that Russia, a permanent Security Council member, has a principled stance equal to that of Serbia according to which a UN member country cannot have its internationally recognized borders altered against its will,” Koštunica said.

The prime minister announced that in the upcoming period, Serbia will strongly insist that the EU and all European institutions strictly adhere to the respect of Serbia’s territorial integrity, a rule which applied to other European states.

He stressed that within its regional cooperation, Serbia would also insist that all states in the region respected its internationally recognized borders, since Serbia without exception was doing the same with reference to all state borders in the region.

“This is an indispensable prerequisite for any form of cooperation in order to ensure peace, stability and prosperity of the entire region,” Koštunica remarked

“Since the Security Council will not allow for a portion of Serbia, as it would mean the violation of the UN Charter and the colapse of the entire international order, it is of particular importance to draw attention to the peril of the very notion of declaring unilateral independence in Kosovo against the UN Resolution 1244,” the prime minister argued.

Koštunica warned that the Serbian government would “immediately annul” any document according to which another state might be created on the territory of Serbia.

“Every Serbian citizen in the province must know very well that unilateral independence simply does not exist and means nothing to Serbia,” the prime minister said.

He recalled that so far there had been several such attempts by ethnic Albanian separatists which had no meaning for the state of Serbia.

“Even if we assume, for example, that just yesterday Albanian separatists declared unilateral independence, our answer is that each of our citizens in Kosovo must absolutely reject and ignore such illegal and invalid acts and know that the province is an integral and unalienable part of Serbia,” he stressed.

“Kosovo residents are full-fledged Serbian citizens,” Koštunica underlined adding that “their government, their parliament and their state institutions, according to the Serbian Constitution, were situated in Belgrade.”

He explained that this obliges state institutions to provide them with employment, health care, education and all other facilities.

The Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija was formed due to the Serbian government’s heightened concern for the province, Koštunica said.