http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.1183488742
ADN Kronos International (Italy)
August 6, 2007
Kosovo: UN official sparks Serb protest for decision
on usurped property
-Over 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since the
province was put under UN control and their
apartments, homes and land have in most cases been
seized by the province's majority ethnic Albanian
community.
-Serbian deputy minister for Kosovo, Dusan Prorokovic,
said Ruecker’s decision was “scandalous” and the worst
taken by the UN administration in the past seven
years....He said Belgrade should take diplomatic and
political action, and even press criminal charges
against Ruecker “for gross violation of international
principles and norms”.
Belgrade – The chief of the United Nations
administration in Kosovo (Unmik) Joachim Ruecker has
triggered a wave of protests by Belgrade officials and
Kosovo Serbs for suspending a decree on the return of
usurped property to their legal owners.
Ruecker, who has wide arbitrary powers in Kosovo,
which has been under UN control since 1999, last
October ordered a special commission for the return of
property to process some 25,000 cases of usurped
property.
But last week he abruptly suspended the decision.
Ruecker said the suspension was of a temporary nature,
because there was no agreement between all interested
parties - in particular the Kosovo government and the
international community on how to handle the problem.
Over 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since the province
was put under UN control and their apartments, homes
and land have in most cases been seized by the
province's majority ethnic Albanian community.
Serbian deputy minister for Kosovo, Dusan Prorokovic,
said Ruecker’s decision was “scandalous” and the worst
taken by the UN administration in the past seven
years.
“This decision in the first place violates the right
to private property, which is inviolable everywhere in
the world, and secondly it awards the usurpers from
whom illegally usurped property now can’t be taken
away by legal means,” Prorokovic told Belgrade media.
He said Belgrade should take diplomatic and political
action, and even press criminal charges against
Ruecker “for gross violation of international
principles and norms”.
A Kosovo Serb leader Goran Bogdanovic said Ruecker’s
decision would further encourage ethnic Albanian
“extremist elements to continue the usurpation of
Serbian property to show who is the real boss in
Kosovo and that there is no room for Serbs”.
Another Kosovo Serb leader, Marko Jaksic, said Ruecker
was continuing his “anti-Serb policies which should
pave the way for the creation of an independent state
of Kosovo”.
Most Western powers, headed by the United States,
support Kosovo independence, demanded by majority
ethnic Albanians, but the plan has been blocked by a
threat of a Russian veto in the UN Security Council
and new talks on Kosovo status should be held later
this month.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
