Lisbon abstains, Prague delays decision on Kosovo recognition

 "Portugal does not join those countries that had decided to recognize this illegal act. I informed my counterpart that we highly appreciate Portugal's refraining and I informed him about our intentions to request the legal opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) through the UN General Assembly in September," said Jeremic, who made a brief visit to Lisbon on his way back from Brasil.

Brasil said it would refuse to recognize Kosovo's secession.

Jeremic underscored that a legal opinion of the ICJ would be an important reference that would help all those countries that have yet to decide how to approach the illegal declaration of independence in a way that would be legally correct.

During his meeting with Jeremic, Amado said that the Portuguese government "highly appreciates the degree of refrain that Serbian had demonstrated so far under such difficult circumstances" relating to Kosovo.

"They believe that Serbia had responded on the issue in an adequate way and that it would continue to be engaged diplomatically, politically and every other way aiming at establishing peace and stability in our southern province," said Jeremic.

Meanwhile, in Prague, the Czech government on Wednesday adjourned its discussion on a proposal to recognise the unilateral independence of Kosovo, since the ministers had completely different stands on the issue.

"They requested time to study the material additionally," government spokesperson Jana Bartosova said.

She added that the government had not set the date for the resumption of the discussion on the proposal of Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg on the recognition of Kosovo.

The Czech Christian Democrats in the government, some ministers from the ruling Civic Democratic Party of Czech President Vaclav Klaus, and the opposition believe that Prague should not recognise Kosovo as an independent state, while Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek believes that this should be done as soon as possible without further postponement.

A group of Czech intellectuals on Wednesday called upon the Czech government to reject the foreign minister's proposal that the country recognise Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence, because state borders must not be changed by force and without an agreement among all sides.

If it recognised the independence of Kosovo, the Czech government would help deny the importance of international law, like it was done by Chamberlain's Britain and Daladier's France in the case of the Munich agreement, a group of Czech "activists" said in an open letter.

The letter was signed by more than 40 professors, researchers, economists, lawyers, politicologists, publicists, authors, philosophers, sociologists, journalists and others, including former Czech foreign minister Jan Kavan.

The United States, which declared the so-called Kosovo liberation army a terrorist organisation, has accepted the arguments of its leaders and representatives, including drug mafia lords and war criminals and thus became their official ally, the letter said.

This step might set a very dangerous precedent which realistically threatens neighbouring Macedonia, the Czech activists said and added that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 had clearly confirmed the importance of soveriegnty and territorial integrity of FR Yugoslavia and Serbia as its legal successor.

They believe that Serbia is right to want to file a lawsuit to the International Court of Justice in the Hague and are convinced that the ICJ would confirm Serbia's principled stand on the necessity of observation of the UN Charter and Security Council resolution.

"The Czech stand towards the Kosovo issue contains a specific historic responsibility of our state - towards law and justice, Serbia and ourselves", the letter said.

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