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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia’s international borders must be protected

Geneva, 19 June 2006

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Draskovic said today in the first session of the UN Council for Human Rights in Geneva that rights of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija as well as Serbia’s international borders must be protected.

Vuk Draskovic

Author: Tanjug

Draskovic said that Serbia demands that the UN Council for Human Rights take the stand that rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians in the province must be protected immediately and unconditionally with international guarantees and added that existing borders of internationally recognised states cannot change contrary to will of those states.

The Minister spoke about violations of human rights in Kosovo-Metohija in the session of the UN Council for Human Rights, which was also attended by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a great number of foreign diplomats from all around the world.

He said that during the past seven years more than 220,000 Serbs, Roma, Turks and other non-Albanians were expelled from Kosovo-Metohija, with over 1,000 Serbs killed, including children. Also, nearly 40,000 Serb houses and 150 centuries old churches and monasteries were destroyed, Draskovic stressed.

Draskovic recalled that UN Secretary-General’s special envoy Kai Eide said in his report that the human rights situation in Kosovo is worse than dark and that criminal acts are not being uncovered as a culture of no punishment reigns in the province.

Eide reported that Serbs, frequently, cannot engage in farming on their own land in villages, because ethnic Albanians attack them with firearms or simply take the land from them forcibly, added the Minister.

According to Draskovic, the report has been adopted without a single objection, but despite that today leaders of the ethnic Albanian majority are being congratulated on the promise to respect the rights of Serbs, but under the condition that Kosovo-Metohija is proclaimed an independent state.

He said that this trade in human rights and state borders is the worst possible kind of human rights violation and violation of the UN Charter, because human rights and borders of internationally recognised countries should be respected without conditions.

Recalling that it was announced that the international Contact Group and the UN’s Security Council will decide the future status of Kosovo-Metohija by the end of the year, Draskovic asked that the rights of Serbs and other minorities in Kosovo-Metohija and the international borders of Serbia are respected.

He said that Serbia is pressing forward for membership in the Human Rights Council from 2008 to 2011, and pointed out that, if elected, Serbia will make efforts that the UN Charter be applicable to all and that the same principles be valid for all people, nations and countries.

The UN Human Rights Council has replaced the previous UN Commission on Human Rights and has wider authority. The Council has 47 members, directly elected by the UN General Assembly for a period of three years.