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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia rejects any attempt at Kosovo partition

Belgrade/Washington, 14 April 2008

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic stressed that Serbia resolutely rejects any attempt to impose an illegal and violent partition of any portion of its territory.

In an article which he contributed to today's issue of the Washington Times daily, Samardzic said that even a hint of Kosovo partition, which would be a “partition within a partition” of Serbia’s sovereign territory, is in contravention of any argument Serbia could put forward.

He noted that Serbia will never accept the unilaterally proclaimed independence by Kosovo, no matter which part of the province is in question.

One has to wonder whether the actual goal of all the stories about Kosovo partition – and of the accusation of Serbs – is further “Balkanisation” of other regions in the world, stressed Samardzic.

He said that despite the breach of international norms which it witnessed, Serbia still believes in the fundamental standards of human honesty, the rule of law and the opinion of the world, which is still on its side.

The majority of countries did not jump on the US bandwagon and they still respect Serbia’s position, he noted.

Samardzic also stated that Belgrade is nevertheless ready to negotiate the widest possible autonomy for Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija, wider than the one any national or religious minority has anywhere in the world.

Yet, we will not have anyone ordering us about. We are ready to give a chance to all governments, which have been so hostile to us, to get out of the instable situation they created and together with the Serbian state and the Serbian people restore peace and the rule of law they so harshly violated, he said.

Samardzic said that by recognising Kosovo, the US and some other European countries are violating Serbia’s territorial integrity and international law, also because their governments insist on accepting the illegitimate Kosovo authorities and the deployment of the EULEX mission, and that is a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which affirms Serbia’s sovereignty over its southern province.

The Minister warned that such a policy has already given rise to violence.

The readiness of Washington and its followers to use force in order to impose their demands has been recently demonstrated in Mitrovica, where UNMIK and KFOR acted violently against Serbian judges and other court employees who peacefully and temporarily took over the court facility in which they worked prior to the NATO violence against Serbia, explained Samardzic.

He warned that the recent decision by US President George Bush to offer military assistance and weapons to Albanian separatists speaks volumes about further violent repression against Serbs in Kosovo.

Serbia has once again responded with restraint and constructive initiatives to restore peace and the rule of law. Recently, I have proposed that pursuant to Resolution 1244, the Serb community should be given the right to self-government under UN supervision and under its jurisdiction. Thus the Serb community would be efficiently protected from the lawlessness of the Kosovo government at whose helm are commanding officers from the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, said Samardzic.

According to him, this would also help the UN to restore the rule of law, which has been severely compromised and jeopardised by the illegal proclamation of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia.

Serbia’s proposal means that we support UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and that we want to help preserve the resolution. Whether the UN accepts or rejects this offer, this will be a test that will show whether it intends to continue playing the role it was given by Resolution 1244, concluded Samardzic.