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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Kosovo independence would be most violent jeopardy of international law

Belgrade/Moscow, 17 December 2007

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that independence of Kosovo-Metohija would be most violent jeopardy of international law and added that Serbia would proclaim the unilateral proclamation of independence void.

File photo of Vojislav Kostunica

Author: Tanjug

Kostunica said in an interview to Moscow’s TVC, prior to his departure to New York, that for Serbia there is no independence of Kosovo nor can it be, noting that support of other countries to Serbian position plays a big role.

He noted that Serbs in Kosovo expressed their will to stay in Serbia and they supported the Serbian Constitution.

Asked whether it is possible that some western countries acknowledge Kosovo’s independence not in the UN but through European structures, the Serbian Prime Minister said that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 regulating the status of Kosovo is in force.

The status of Kosovo can be changed only in a new UN SC resolution, Kostunica stressed and added that attempt of applying some other solution – unilateral proclamation or recognition by countries in the region and the United States would be direct violence and jeopardy of international legal order.

That would not only be the blow for the UN; separatists in other countries would use that example, which would then put the whole international order at stake, the Serbian Prime Minister warned.

Answering the question whether the perspective of Kosovo independence was planned when Yugoslavia was bombed in 1999, Kostunica reiterated that Yugoslavia was bombed without a decision of the UN SC.

There were explanations that it was a humanitarian campaign; however, NATO campaign was all but humanitarian. Later we saw Albanians coming back in larger numbers then when they left. They were coming from Albania, Macedonia, while nothing was done to help return expelled Serbs, Kostunica said.

He explained that March 17, 2004 was an obvious attempt of cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija and stressed that after the arrival of international forces, there have been attempts to cleanse Kosovo from Serbs as they are not given the opportunity to return, criminal cases committed against Serbs are not solved, including murders, kidnappings, destruction of property.

We are coming to a conclusion that the bombing is followed by setting up an unusual creation, a NATO state on the territory of Kosovo-Metohija with capital located in US military base Bondsteel, the Prime Minister concluded.