Belgrade calls for urgent UN Security Council meeting on Kosovo
Belgrade has requested a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council following the announcement that Albanian leaders would unilaterally declare secession from Serbia, Russian Ambassador to UN Vitaly Churkin said on Tuesday.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic will travel to New York to attend the special session, widely seen as the first round of fierce diplomatic struggle Belgrade plans to launch to annul Kosovo's independence on the international stage.
Serbian request for urgent session ahead of Kosovo's declaration was strongly backed by Russia and China - permanent constituents of the 15-member body -- which, at least according to the international law, has the final say considering the fate of volatile province.
According to UN diplomats, Serbia has requested the UN body to convene as early as Thursday.
The United States and British diplomats in New York have said that they were standing firm behind previous stances that the debate in Security Council was long over, due to the opposing stances between the Moscow and West over the Kosovo issue.
The main point of future debate in New York will be Security Council Resolution 1244 from June 1999, which suspended Belgrade's rule in province but maintained Serbian territorial integrity and sovereignty on the territory.
The European Union legal experts argue that a "creative interpretation" of Resolution 1244 opens the way for Kosovo's supervised independence, but Belgrade strongly backed by Russia, insists that the paper preserves the integrity of country's borders and reject EU interpretations as "deceit" and "manipulation" of international law.
Russia stood firm against the unilateral declaration of independence in Kosovo on Tuesday, warning that secession of internationally administrated Serbian province, without agreement with Belgrade, would violate the international law and damage security in Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the pack of Western nations led by the United States of reckless diplomacy over the Kosovo crisis, saying that supporters of province's independence failed to fully analyze the complexity of potential consequences of unilateral declaration of sovereignty in Pristina.
"It would undermine the basics of security in Europe, it would undermine the basics of the United Nations charter," Lavrov said in Geneva, blaming the West for "haphazard" or chaotic approach to Kosovo crisis by undermining the tide of reactions throughout the world, including parts of Europe.
"Many of them, frankly, do not understand the risks and dangers and threats associated with a unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence," Lavrov said in Geneva. "Russia will continue to look for another solution to independence. We will work up to the very last moment, doing everything in our power, to prevent this," Lavrov said.
