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

Resolution 1244 must be fully respected

New York/Belgrade, 11 March 2008

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic said late today at a session of the UN Security Council dedicated to Kosovo-Metohija that Resolution 1244 must be fully respected and requested that the transfer of authority from UNMIK to any other body, including the EU mission - EULEX be stopped immediately.

Vuk Jeremic

Author: Reuters

Jeremic said on this occasion that that is the only way to prevent further deterioration of the situation on the ground and added that the mandate of UNMIK, which is clealy defined in the Security Council, must not be eroded and that is why Serbia requests that the transfer of authority from UNMIK to any other body must be stopped immediately.

Serbia will continue to act in accordance with Resolution 1244. Unfortunately, others have taken decisive steps towards making their own interpretation of this document in order to adjust it to some short-sighted goals, Jeremic said. The Minister voiced regret that some European countries decided to take part in that dodgy experiment by first recognising the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo's independence, and then by establishing the EULEX mission and the International Steering Group (ISG). The goal of both EULEX and the ISG is to implement the plan for resolving the status of Kosovo proposed by Martti Ahtisaari. That proposal was, however, not supported by the Security Council - the only institution that has the authority to change the nature of the international presence in the province, Jeremic said.

That is why Serbia's position is that both these bodies are functioning outside the framework of Resolution 1244 and they are not in line with principles of the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act. I will say it clearly - it is not that the EU is not welcome in our southern province, because we welcome every dedication by Europe to our country, including Kosovo, but that dedication must have a clear mandate which can be obtained only from the Security Council, the minister stressed. According to him, the recognition of the unilateral independence of Kosovo by some countries represented an attack on the international order, since Resolution 1244 prescribes that all UN member states must respect the territorial integrity of Serbia.

The minister said that those twenty or so countries that supported the seccessionist goals of Kosovo Albanians contributed to destabilisation of the international system and made it less safe and less predictable. In this way, the doctrine of imposing solutions on etnnic conflicts and one-sided seccession is being legitimised.

Jeremic said that in this way the right to self-determination is transformed into the right to independence and the violent partition of an internationally recognised, sovereign state is being legitimised. In that process, any ethnic or religious group that is against its government is being instructed how to achieve its goals.

He said at the session that Serbia will never recognise the attempt by Pristina authorities to secede unilaterally from Serbia and asked the ambassadors in the Security Council what has been achieved with this illegal act. Have international relations been improved by taking Kosovo away from a democratic country? Will Kosovo, as an entity in a vacuum which cannot get international legitimacy as a UN member, be able to achieve sustainable prosperity without Belgrade? Will regional stability and cooperation be improved by the choice forced upon our neighbours, and that is to choose between Serbia and Kosovo, Jeremic asked. He recalled that hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Belgrade on February 21 to protest in a peaceful way against that act and again voiced regret that a small number of them resorted to violence. Violence is not the answer, but violence has been a reality in Kosovo for too long, Jeremic said. Kosovo Serbs were left to the carefully planned and brutally implemented pogrom by Kosovo Albanians, who were awarded for their violent behaviour.

Jeremic underlined that Serbia means no harm to Kosovo Albanians and that its vital interest is that all communities in Kosovo make progress, together and in peace. For that reason Serbia does not want to impose an embargo and that is why we have a clear policy of not resorting to weapons, the minister said and added that Belgrade will at the same time make sure that Kosovo Serbs are not left living in fear and isolation, as has been the case for the past eight years. Speaking about the upcoming extraordinary parliamentary elections in Serbia, Jeremic said that during the pre-election campaign a political battle will be fought on many issues, except for the issue of Kosovo, because Serbia as a whole is united on that issue.