Belgrade to cooperate "with UNMIK only"

Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović says Serbia will not accept EULEX without a UN Security Council approval.

Source: Beta, Dnevnik
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"We insist that the EU mission's presence in Kosovo and Metohija be internationally harmonized, rather than to be used to implement the absolutely unacceptable Ahtisaari plan, which, anyway, was rejected at the Security Council," the minister told Novi Sad's Dnevnik newspaper.

He added that the government is "fully aware of the situation and all the dangers faced by the Serb areas in Kosovo, but that UNMIK is the only legitimate mission, since a violation of international law, that is, UN Resolution 1244, cannot be accepted".

"Therefore, whatever EULEX does, we will cooperate with UNMIK only, because we believe that the UN mission is the only one competent to solve the problems of Serbs and other non-Albanians," Bogdanović was quoted as saying by the daily.

He repeated that the government in Belgrade is opposed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's position that EULEX should replace UNMIK, and said that Serbia "will continue to diplomatically do everything to have such ideas dismissed, at the Security Council above all, because the Ahtisaari plan is behind all this".

The government is aware of the tough battle ahead at the UN General Assembly, its minister in charge of the province said.

Serbia plans to ask for support for its initiative to have the International Court of Justice, ICJ, give its opinion on the legality of the Kosovo Albanians' unilateral declaration of independence in February, which Belgrade rejected and declared illegal.

"We know we are in the right, we have international legal order on our side, and I hope we will manage to secure the necessary support of the General Assembly. That would then send a clear message to the big and powerful countries who have recognized Kosovo that international law cannot be trampled on," Bodganović believes.

In Belgrade, the state secretary with the ministry, Oliver Ivanović, said that Serbian authorities will not maintain official contacts with EULEX.

He said that this mission is illegal and that it arrived in Kosovo circumventing the UN Security Council and without Serbia's agreement.

"This is the general instruction for the whole of Kosovo and the state clerks in Kosovo. Serbs in Kosovo will seek legal or police protection in the nearest police station, and we will make an effort to have Serb [policemen] in those stations," he told Beta news agency.

Currently, Ivanović added, the government and the ministry are negotiating with UNMIK to find a way to keep Serbs in the Kosovo police, KPS.

Such an agreement would see Serb officers subordinated to UNMIK, rather than EULEX, the ICO, or the Priština authorities, he explained.

Ivanović also commented on the latest trend, where Kosovo Serbs from Gnjilane have been emigrating to northern European countries, obtaining visas for this easily.

He said he "does not wish to believe that this is an intentional reduction of the Serb numbers in Kosovo", but that the phenomenon is nonetheless notable.

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