The United Nations Security Council ended Wednesday's
consultations on the future status of the Serbian province of
Kosovo with no conclusions due to major differences among the
parties.
"The council did not reach any specific conclusions," said
Massimo D'Alema, foreign minister of Italy, which holds the
presidency of the UN Security Council.
"The general will around the table was along the line that
stability, security of the population, protection of human rights,
and of minority rights, and economic and social development should
continue to be the focus of our action, and our commitment in the
future," D'Alema told reporters after the closed-door
consultations.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said there is still room for
negotiations between Belgrade and the Serbian province of Kosovo,
but the European Union and the United States insist that "the
potential for a negotiated solution is now exhausted."
"As optimists we do believe that negotiations can continue, and
they can produce an outcome which can be acceptable for the two
parties and which would keep stability in Kosovo and in the
Balkans," Churkin said.
However, the United States, the European Union and a number of
European countries issued a joint statement after the consultations
that "the potential for negotiated solution is now exhausted."
"The presentations by the two parties confirmed that their views
remain irreconcilable on the fundamental question of sovereignty,"
the joint statement said. "It is clear in our view that more
negotiations in this or any other format will not make any
difference."
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Fatmir Sejdiu,
president of the Serbian province of Kosovo, presented their views
at Wednesday's closed-door consultations.
Russian Ambassador Churkin stressed that Moscow does "not regard
it at all as the final time that the Security Council has looked at
this issue."
He warned that "any move toward unilateral declaration of
independence would clearly be outside of the limits of
international law and ... (UN Security Council) Resolution
1244."
"The United Nations should disregard that kind of declaration of
independence and call on Pristina to repeal it if things were
developing in that direction," the Russian ambassador said.
"If things were to get out of the legal channel, if things were
to go in the direction of unilateral moves, that would be sending a
shock wave to the international system and international law,"
Churkin warned.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said negotiations
should not be blocked and that the Security Council should be
dedicated to the search of a compromise.
"When there are conflicts, conflicts are solved through
negotiations," Kostunica said. "They cannot be stopped. They cannot
be blocked."
"We also defended that this august body, the Security Council,
should be dedicated to searching for a compromise." Kostunica
said
"We are encouraged ... that we heard many voices speaking in
favor of this same, and to us very dear, and very important ideas
-- respect of law, negotiations, compromise, and so on," he
added.
Kostunica warned that "any sort of unilateral declaration of
independence, or some partial violation of Resolution 1244, will
bring for sure this world organization into serious crisis."
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said "Serbia will do
everything that a democratic sovereign country has in its arsenal
in order to uphold its constitution short of the use of force."
(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2007)
