Security Council ends Kosovo consultations

Security Council ends Kosovo consultations

Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted that Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu speak to council members informally in a basement conference room - and that's what happened, the AP reports.

Ahtisaari presented his Kosovo status plan to the Security Council member countries, meeting with mixed reactions. The U.S. and major European countries welcomed independence for Kosovo, while Russia preferred to see it remain a part of Serbia, reports say.

Koštunica asked the Security Council to reject Ahtisaari’s plan and demanded a new round on talks on the province’s future, as well as a new international mediator.

Koštunica told journalists after the meeting that it was “already emerging Ahtisaari’s plan would have difficulties passing the council,” and expressed his conviction that it would not.

Britain's ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the current council president, said the council will decide in the next few days whether to send a mission to Belgrade and Priština - as Russia has proposed - "and I've no doubt that there will be further discussions here this month," the AP reported from New York.

Parry said Tuesday morning's discussion "was probably quite healthy because underneath it there is a tension."

"The tension is between territorial sovereignty, the threat of dismemberment of a nation state, and on the other hand ... the whole question of self-determination, and whether or not in certain circumstances it's right that a territory should actually cede and become independent," he said.

Churkin said Russia's main problem with Ahtisaari's proposal "is that it has not been accepted by both sides."

During Tuesday's meeting, he said, "one could feel ... that Security Council members, most of them, were in a reflective mood and were trying to analyze the situation and find the best way forward."

The Ahtisaari plan is backed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Britain, France and the U.S., and Jones Parry said that there was "considerable support" during Tuesday evening's closed-door discussion.

Acting U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States believes supervised independence "is the only option really available."

But he said there is a need for more information to explain why the Ahtisaari proposals "are the right way to proceed" - and why Koštunica's statement that they go against the UN Charter, international law, and council resolutions "are wrong."

Sejdiu told the Associated Press his message to the council was that "Kosovo is ready to move forward as an independent country and as a member of the family of independent nations in Europe."

He urged the council to approve Ahtisaari's plan as soon as possible.

What if Russia vetoes a resolution calling for internationally supervised independence?

"I like to think positively," Sejdiu replied. "I think this will be a joint decision, a joint agreement by all members of the Security Council."

Koštunica: Unilateral recognition would question UN authority

“To this date nobody has ever attempted to challenge the validity of the fundamental principle of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of internationally recognized states, or to question the principle of inviolability of their internationally recognized borders,” prime minister Vojislav Koštunica said in his address to the closed UN Security Council session dedicated to Kosovo.

“I stress that this has never happened before, that is – not until the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy Mr. Martti Ahtisaari presented his proposal on the Kosovo status settlement,” Koštunica said, adding that “the only justification offered is that thus Kosovo and Metohija Albanians, a national minority within our country, could form another Albanian state on Serbian territory, adjacent to the already existing state of Albania.”

Koštunica continued by saying that was the reason why Serbia “unambiguously rejected Ahtisaari’s proposal as an unlawful and illegitimate attempt to dismember our state.”

“The Security Council is the right place to ask Mr. Ahtisaari – what is the legal basis of his proposal to violate the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity of internationally recognized states, thus depriving Serbia, a UN member state, of a significant part of its territory? The Special Envoy has so far been silent on this issue, and it is high time that he should repair this omission,” Koštunica said.  

He reiterated Serbia’s commitment to engage “constructively and responsibly in further talks aimed at reaching a compromise solution for the southern Serbian province.”

“Serbia is fully convinced that it is possible to find such a negotiated and historically just solution. Serbs and Albanians have lived together for centuries, and for centuries Kosovo and Metohija has been a part of Serbia. Serbia is fully committed to enabling the Albanian national minority to achieve, in accordance with the SC Resolution 1244, substantial autonomy in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija,” Koštunica told the Security Council.

“This means that the Albanians in the Province would be able to decide upon their future, manage their own affairs and protect their interests, while at the same time Serbia would, in accordance with the UN Charter, preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.  

Koštunica also reminded that the Security Council Resolution 1244 was binding on the governments of all UN member states.

“No state may violate this Resolution, or take a unilateral position on the future status of the Province. Any unilateral recognition of Kosovo’s independence would constitute flagrant and - I stress - double violation of UN norms. Both the UN Charter and Resolution 1244 would be violated, and any state that decides to act in such an unlawful manner would directly call into question the authority of the UN,” Koštunica said.