Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Gross violations of rights of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija

Belgrade, 21 May 2007

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that rights of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija are being grossly violated, and UN representatives in their reports are not providing correct information to the international community on the situation in the southern province.

Vojislav Kostunica

Author: Fonet

In an interview for the Russian television channel “Vesti 24”, Kostunica said that a lot of questions are being asked regarding the respect of human rights, the right to live and move freely, as well as regarding the protection of sites sacred to the Orthodox Church.

Serbs are not returning to Kosovo-Metohija, and the most terrifying aspect of this issue is that it is not the just the Albanian areas but places where Serbs have always lived and are still living, to which they cannot return, said Kostunica. He stressed that this fact is shameful not just for the interim administration and the international community, but also to a great degree for the UN Mission in Kosovo-Metohija and the UNMIK chief.

Kostunica also stressed that UN representatives at Security Council sessions are misinforming the international community concerning the question of rights of Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija.

The truth is that once 40,000 Serbs lived in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo-Metohija, and today this number is less than 100, and in northern Kosovo-Metohija, all the cities except Mitrovica, have been cleansed of Serbs, said Kostunica.

The Prime Minister said that it is a fact that Kosovo Serbs cannot move freely, that the vast majority of the Serb population did not return to the province where some 150 churches and monasteries were torn down.

The double standards being applied when it comes to respect of human rights in Kosovo-Metohija, pointed to by Russia at the very start, are also being brought into question, said Kostunica.

According to Kostunica, owing precisely to these efforts by Russian diplomats a UN Security Council fact-finding mission recently visited Belgrade and Pristina whose members were able to assess for themselves to which extent human rights are being respected in the southern province.

The situation is extremely different from the one presented by the UNMIK chief and UN Special Envoy for negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, said Kostunica for Russian television.

The Serbian Prime Minister said that Russia and Serbia have principled positions concerning Kosovo-Metohija, call on the respect of international law and advocate peace.

He said that such policy is beneficial for the entire world, while the plan of Martti Ahtisaari proposes violation of the UN Charter that guarantees sovereignty of every country in the world, including Serbia.

He also proposes the violation of Resolution 1244 that confirms Serbia's territorial integrity, Kostunica said and added that Ahtisaari was biased from the very start of negotiations on Kosovo and that he had led the International Crisis Group (ICG) before he was appointed special envoy of the UN Secretary-General.

Speaking about the activities of this group which during the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Moscow proposed placing a two-year moratorium on Kosovo's accession to the UN and the appointment of a special envoy for return of refugees, Kostunica said that ICG dedicated itself more to aggravating the crisis in the region than solving problems.

He recalled that this group proposed giving independence to Kosovo-Metohija, and then Ahtisaari himself proposed the same, but his plan is unacceptable because nothing good can be made of something so bad.

Commenting on the statement of Condoleezza Rice that Kosovo will never again be part of Serbia, Kostunica said that no country can resolve the destiny of another one and that only the UN Security Council has that right.

The Security Council is a UN organ and it cannot violate the UN Charter. The very idea of giving independence to Kosovo is the harshest violation of international law and no country in the world has the right to call on others to do that, the Serbian Prime Minister underlined and voiced hope that the UN and the Security Council will not take the wrong road and violate the UN Charter and the principle of sovereignty of member states.

Serbia will never accept Kosovo's independence, Kostunica reiterated and called on everyone to return to international law.

It is necessary to return to the beginning, to international law, to return rights to Serbs and work out a solution that will satisfy both Belgrade and Pristina, the Prime Minister pointed out, adding that this is not difficult because it is only necessary to stick to the existing Resolution 1244.