UNSC sent dangerous message, foreign minister says

The UN Security Council defended unilateral use of force by refusing to adopt an announcement proposed by Russia, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has said. He said that the UN Security Council had this way sent a dangerous message. UNSC sent dangerous message, foreign minister says The foreign minister stressed that it is not unusual that the countries that had been supporting Pristina at the UN Security Council so far had done it again. “Just like Russia and China are blocking every attempt in the UN Security Council to legitimize Kosovo separatism in the international-legal sense, Pristina’s allies, who also have the power of veto, are strongly supporting it. But it is very problematic that they aside from their usual behavior this time practically defended unilateral use of force. I think they sent a pretty dangerous message,” he told daily Vecernje novosti. “The debate was pretty heated, as you could see. It is encouraging that most of the members clearly supported our positions. It was extremely important to present the whole truth about the violence that happened in Kosovo in July to the international public, especially because of the fact that we were not able to take part in the extraordinary session at the time,” the minister was quoted as saying. Jeremic pointed out that insisting on the dialogue but turning a blind eye to violence was a scenario we had already seen in Kosovo. “We have already seen the scenario when the authorities in Pristina organized the 2004 March violence in order to force the international community to give up on the ‘standard before status’ policy, after which Ahtisaari’s staged process followed. However, just like it did not lead to a sustainable solution then it is quite certain that it won’t yield results this time either. Unless the compromise is reached through negotiations we will not allow the Kosovo problem to disappear from the international public’s radar, whether they like it or not,” he told the daily. The Serbian foreign minister pointed out that “renouncing support and cooperation with democratically elected Serb institutions in Kosovo is certainly not a realistic option”. Vuk Jeremic

UNSC sent dangerous message, foreign minister says

The foreign minister stressed that it is not unusual that the countries that had been supporting Priština at the UN Security Council so far had done it again.

“Just like Russia and China are blocking every attempt in the UN Security Council to legitimize Kosovo separatism in the international-legal sense, Priština’s allies, who also have the power of veto, are strongly supporting it. But it is very problematic that they aside from their usual behavior this time practically defended unilateral use of force. I think they sent a pretty dangerous message,” he told daily Večernje novosti.

“The debate was pretty heated, as you could see. It is encouraging that most of the members clearly supported our positions. It was extremely important to present the whole truth about the violence that happened in Kosovo in July to the international public, especially because of the fact that we were not able to take part in the extraordinary session at the time,” the minister was quoted as saying.

Jeremić pointed out that insisting on the dialogue but turning a blind eye to violence was a scenario we had already seen in Kosovo.

“We have already seen the scenario when the authorities in Priština organized the 2004 March violence in order to force the international community to give up on the ‘standard before status’ policy, after which Ahtisaari’s staged process followed. However, just like it did not lead to a sustainable solution then it is quite certain that it won’t yield results this time either. Unless the compromise is reached through negotiations we will not allow the Kosovo problem to disappear from the international public’s radar, whether they like it or not,” he told the daily.

The Serbian foreign minister pointed out that “renouncing support and cooperation with democratically elected Serb institutions in Kosovo is certainly not a realistic option”.