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Security Council looks at Kosovo issue with responsibility

New York, 14 July 2006

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said late today in New York that the session of the UN Security Council (SC) at which he presented Serbian government's positions on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija was very important and that it showed that the SC looks at the issue of Kosovo seriously and with responsibility.

Author: AP

In an interview to Radio Television of Serbia, Kostunica said that this session gave him one more opportunity to say to which extent the conditions set for Kosovo have been fulfilled, that is, that they have not been fulfilled and that human rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians in the province are being violated.

Representatives of all permanent members of the SC spoke at the session, the Prime Minister said and added that those were very important, even historic speeches, which confirmed once more the importance of the principles that are the basis of the international order, and these are first and foremost territorial integrity and sovereignty of the existing states.

My impression is that after so many talks, awareness is raising of the complexity of Kosovo's problem and of the fact that the solution must be sought in line with international law, Kostunica added.

He said that Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu was not present at the session, because the rule is that the sessions can be attended only be representatives of internationally recognised states.

In New York, the Serbian Prime Minister met with SC President, French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, UN Special Envoy for Kosovo talks Marti Ahtisaari and Russian Ambassador to the SC Vitali Churkin.

In the talks with Ahtisaari, it was agreed that the meeting on status issues should be prepared well.

In order for talks to be successful, it is very important to prepare them well, to determine their dynamics, duration, rules and to keep minutes, the Prime Minister said, stressing that has not been the case with largely unsuccessful talks in Vienna.

That is a proposal which Serbian President Boris Tadic and myself signed and sent to Ahtisaari, who handed over a written answer today. We will analyse his answer and agree on the further course of negotiations, Kostunica added.

He pointed to the importance of the meeting with the Russian Ambassador in which the Russian commitment to the respect for the fundamental principle - territorial integrity and sovereignty - was once more confirmed, as well as the position that there are no unique cases and that wrong solutions or precedents can be very dangerous and affect the stability in the region.

Kostunica said that during the meetings in Europe and Washington, as well as at the SC session, he pointed once more to the need of respecting one of the Contact Group's guiding principles, and that is a compromise.

Advocating a compromise solution, Serbia is advocating a multi-ethnic character of Kosovo-Metohija.

Serbia is more multi-ethnic than any former Yugoslav state. Why would not that multi-ethnicity be possible in Kosovo as well? I think that these are the arguments which our collocutors hear and accept more and more, the Prime Minister stressed.

He told Serbs in Kosovo that all Serbian institutions are included in the efforts to keep Kosovo-Metohija where it has always belonged - in Serbia.

I am satisfied with all the talks I have had and I want to convey that optimism to our fellow-countrymen in Kosovo, Kostunica stressed.