Ban Ki-Moon to discuss Kosovo with Putin
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will be discussing Kosovo with Russian president Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow on Wednesday.
(KosovoCompromise Staf) Tuesday, April 08, 2008
"At this moment, the situation in the field is very calm, but it is absolutely necessary that the international community and both interested parties do their utmost to keep peace and stability", Ban said ahead of the trip.
"The sides must refrain from unilateral moves which could worsen the current situation and provoke violence", he added ahead of his first trip to Moscow as Secretary-General.
Ban will also meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Lavrov told the Russian Duma this week that Serbs and other non-Albanians "have the full right to express how and where they want to live".
"It is not a coincidence that in Kosovska Mitrovica and other Serb-populated enclaves of Kosovo, Serb municipalities categorically refuse to cooperate with any international representatives except Kfor and UNMIK, which have been formed in accordance with UN resolution 1244", Lavrov said.
"To coerce them into something else, into accepting an alleged legitimacy of the EU mission, is absolutely unacceptable", the Russian minister said, adding Moscow would be discussing this matter with the EU and UNMIK, "whose chiefs are sometimes tempted to transfer authority to the EU mission".
Lavrov said Russia now "has the right to question" its Western partners who have claimed that it was impossible to continue negotiations on status whether their argument that "Albanians can never again live with Serbs" is also valid inside Kosovo.
"They don't know how to answer this question", the Russian minister said.
