Serbia threatens to retaliate if Kosovo declares unilateral independence
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TIRANA, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Serbia threatened on Thursday to take every
means possible to retaliate if Kosovo declares unilateral independence, news
reaching here from Belgrade reported.
"If someone inflicts injuries on you, then you must respond and hit back
and do some damage as well," Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told
reporters.
He said Serbia would do everything to prevent Kosovo from proclaiming
unilateral independence. However, he declined to specify what kind of means he
would take for retaliation if Kosovo proceeds with its intention of unilateral
independence.
The Kosovo Albanian leaders reiterated on Thursday that their demand for
independence is non-negotiable.
"We reaffirmed that the independence of Kosovo is non-negotiable, nor is
Kosovo's territorial integrity," Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said in
Pristina after he returned from the first round of new Kosovo status talks in
Vienna.
It was reported that today's talks, chaired by the troika, composed of
three envoys from the United States, the European Union and Russia, ended in
Vienna without breaking the stalemate over the Kosovo issue.
Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku vowed after the talk to declare
independence if a final push for a diplomatic settlement between now and
December 10 doesn't give Kosovo independence.
Kosovo, Serbia's southern breakaway province, has been run by the United
Nations since 1999 after 78 days of NATO bombing drove out Serbian forces
fighting ethnic Albanian rebels.
Serbia has stated repeatedly that Kosovo is an integral part of its
territory and vowed to keep it within its border while Kosovo, where 90 percent
of its 2 million population is ethnic Albanians, had said it will settle for
nothing short of full independence.
The UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari presented last March his proposals
which would grant supervised independence to Kosovo. The plan was backed by the
U.S. and many of the western countries, but was vehemently opposed by Serbia
and its veto-power ally Russia.
Although the two delegations from Belgrade and Pristina didn't make a
breakthrough in Vienna on the fate of Kosovo, they did agree not to partition
the province along the ethnic line, as mooted earlier this month in the
international community.
Serbian Foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic headed the Serbian delegation to the
Vienna talk, said that he had reached agreement with the troika envoys that the
two delegations would meet face to face on the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly next month in New York.
In Vienna, the two delegations didn't meet directly, only with the troika
envoys shuttling between them.
Editor: Yan Liang
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/31/content_6635333.htm
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