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Thursday,
July 19,
2007, #136 (1403) It appears as if the issue of Kosovo’s independence is doomed for withdrawal from the UN Security Council after failure to reach an agreement. Russia sent the message they will veto the latest version presented last week. As the document was reviewed last week, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it had “zero chance” for adoption. Their main position is that until agreement is reached between the Kosovo Albanians and Serbs, no action should be taken. At the moment the Serbs are refusing to enter into dialogue with the Albanians. Under the last version, Kosovo would legally remain a province of Serbia but would be under a “supervised independence” by the UN. The difference compared to previous versions is fairly insignificant. Chairman of the International Affairs of the Russian Duma Konstantin Kosachev says that the author of the plan Martti Ahtisaari, the UN special envoy for Kosovo, is not taking into consideration Serbia’s position. They complain that out of the 500 amendments submitted by Belgrade, the plan only includes one. Last week UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged all parties to quickly come to a final resolution, “Any further delay will have a very negative impact on peace and security, not only in Kosovo,” quotes the BBC. He also reiterated in a press conference this week that the resolution, if passed, would not set a precedent. “I’d like to make it clear that this issue of Kosovo is a sui generis issue. This will not create any other precedents to other potential such problems or questions. If you look at the history of the involvement of the United Nations and the international community, you will see immediately the difference of this Kosovo issue from other potential issues. Therefore, it is clear—and it has been clearly stated on many occasions—that this resolution, the question of Kosovo, will not create any precedents for other matters.” Javier Solana, EU high representative for the common foreign and security policy, expressed hope the UN Security Council could resolve the issue but suggested that, if not, the members of the Contact Group (US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia) would open a new process of negotiations. The EU is particularly interested in seeing a resolution passed so it can begin a mission in Kosovo. Without a UN resolution they will have to get creative in finding other ways to establish themselves in the region. An EU mission in Kosovo would be the largest in the EU’s history, including a civil mission with the authority to interpret status settlement, as well as a law-and-order mission, with EU judges, prosecutors and police officers, reports the Baltic Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). For the time being, it appears Russia will win its game of hardball. |
