Verbeke briefs UN Security Council

Verbeke briefs UN Security Council

“Kosovo's society is still recovering from the wounds inflicted by the conflict, with the province's Albanian and Serb communities living, to a large extent, separately from each other.”

The Belgrade authorities and all Kosovo Serb interlocutors remained firmly opposed to the Kosovo settlement proposal submitted by Martti Ahtisaari and rejected a solution that would entail any form of independence, Verbeke said.

Contrarily, Kosovo Albanian representatives had expressed clear and unambiguous support for that proposal and recommendation on Kosovo's future status, he said.

There were also differences in the way they looked to the future: while the Kosovo Albanian community was confident about the future, the Kosovo Serb community was more apprehensive about its prospects, he said.

The commitment and readiness to build a multi-ethnic Kosovo conveyed by Kosovo's political leaders was encouraging, but the creation of such a society would require sustained efforts, Verbeke added.

The mission, initiated by Russia, were meant to give the council a better understanding of the political, social and economic situation in the province as it considers Ahtisaari’s proposal to grant Kosovo independence in a phased process, with initial supervision by the international community.

“Serbs may leave if Kosovo gets independence”

In the event of granting independence to Kosovo there is a possibility that few in number Serbs living in the territory may leave, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said in an interview to Russian journalists on Wednesday.

Churkin visited the region with a delegation of the UN Security Council in order to familiarize with the situation there.

“It is perfectly clear that the Serbs do not accept the idea of Kosovo independence,” the diplomat said.

The view that the Serbs will begin to return if the independence is granted is obviously ungrounded, he said. “Possibly, those few Serbs that had earlier returned will start to leave,” Churkin added.

Churkin also said that situation called for continued talks.

Moreover, “it is necessary to continue maintaining standards and it is necessary to continue to very seriously work on normalizing the situation in Kosovo,” he said.

Therefore, it is inadmissible now “to just cancel resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council and proceed to something else,” as is proposed in the plan of U.S. Secretary-General’s special envoy Martti Ahtissari.

“In our view, first it is necessary to implement the decision that were adopted, it is necessary to have self-respect and only after that transfer to some other conversations,” Churkin stressed.

“The conclusion at which we had earlier arrived that it is inadmissible to force the ‘Ahtisaari package’ on the parties gets a confirmation,” he added.

Commenting on the briefing of Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations Johan Verbeke held at the UN Security Council, Churkin pointed out that “the understanding was expressed at the briefing of the fact that the Albanians and Serbs are not living together yet and fear and uncertainty persist in Kosovo.”