Group of Slovenian MPs calls for FM Rupel's dismissal over Kosovo
A group of independent Slovenian MPs dubbed Lipa on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Janez Jansa dismiss Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, after the affair around the unveiling of notes from a conversation between a Slovenian diplomat and State Department officials.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, February 01, 2008
"The latest events in the Foreign Ministry regarding secret talks with the State Department destroy the reputation, credibility and veritability of our state in both the Slovenian and the international public, and seriously raise the issue of Slovenian national identity, self-importance and sovereignty," a news release by the MPs said.
Slovenian daily Dnevnik and Belgrade-based Politika both published the notes of former Slovenian Foreign Ministry political director Mitja Drobnic, which testify about the US pressure on Slovenia to be the first to recognize Kosovo's independence. Drobnic resigned on Tuesday.
The MPs said that this was a case of "inadmissible and extremely irresponsible official policy of Slovenia, which can have irreparable long-term consequences" for the country itself. They added that Drobnic's resignation was only a matter of passing responsibility onto a lower point, which blurred the severity of the act and the responsibility of Minister Rupel, and the prime minister himself.
Drobnic's document was not labeled as classified, and its publication stirred heated reactions in Slovenia and abroad, while the Slovenian Foreign Ministry launched an investigation on who had given the notes to journalists.
