Russia: Kosovo Serbs 'Being Provoked' Russia's Foreign Ministry Russia's Foreign Ministry 11 April 2008 Pristina _ International forces in Kosovo are provoking the Serb community as the UN mission comes to an end, Russia claims. “According to information coming from certain Western media, the international forces in Kosovo are preparing operations against the Kosovo Serbs with the aim of provoking them,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement says. “They are aiming to pacify the local Serbs, following the declaration of independence,’ the statement adds. The Ministry issued a statement insisting that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, passed at the end of the 1998-1999 conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and regulates the mandate of the UN Mission set up there after 1999, is still valid and the mission should remain. During a visit to Moscow on Wednesday, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, said there was no point in going back to the status quo. ”It is essential to address the issue by understanding the fact that a return to a status-quo is impossible and impractical,” Ban said. Russia, together with Serbia, opposes Kosovo’s February 17 declaration of independence, arguing that it was not the result of a mutual agreement. The Russian Foreign Ministry further warns that international peacekeeping forces in Kosovo have not learnt from the unrest in March this year saying that “such measures threaten to accelerate a partition of the province, and a large conflict in the region.” One Ukrainian policeman serving with the UN in Kosovo died in the riots that erupted in Mitrovica on March 17 after international troops raided a local court taken over by local Serbs. Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov told Ban during their meeting in Moscow that “we have confirmed our position as far as the necessity to rely on Resolution 1244 is concerned, and strictly carry out the mandate of the UN mission to Kosovo.” The United Nations mission is due to be replaced by the European Union’s new law and order mission, which Belgrade and Moscow have branded as illegal. Copyrights © 2007 Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. Contact <http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/info/5850/> Terms <http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/info/5503/> and Conditions of Use
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