http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080413/COMMENTARY/59304043/1012/COMMENT
ARY
The Washington Times
Commentary
13 April 2008
Serbia rejects separation
By Slobodan Samardzic - On Feb. 17, leaders of the ethnic Albanian community
in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia illegally and unilaterally
declared independence from Serbia.
Violating Serbia's territorial integrity and international law, the United
States and some European countries extended recognition and demanded that
the Serbian government and Serbs in Kosovo respect the "border" created
through our territory. They further insist on acceptance of the illegitimate
"authority" in Pristina and deployment of a European Union mission
("EULEX"), despite absence of any legal ground, including United Nations
Security Council authorization.
These actions are clear violations of the controlling U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1244 (1999), which affirms Serbian sovereignty in the province.
They also already have resulted in violence. The willingness of Washington
and its hangers-on to use force to impose their demands was displayed
recently in the mainly Serbian area of Northern Mitrovica, where U.N. police
(UNMIK) and NATO-led military (KFOR) took violent action against Serbian
judges and court workers who had peacefully and temporarily held a sit-in in
a court building where they been employed prior to the 1999 NATO war against
my country. This was done despite an agreement, which I brokered, for the
Serbs to leave the premises voluntarily, which they were doing when they
were violently attacked.
My government has demanded an impartial international investigation.
President Bush's recent decision to provide weapons and other military
assistance to the Albanian separatists points to further violent suppression
of Serbs in Kosovo.
Serbia has responded to these provocations with restraint and constructive
initiatives to restore peace and the rule of law. Recently I proposed that —
pursuant to Resolution 1244 — the Serbian community would govern its own
affairs, under U.N. oversight and jurisdiction. This would effectively
protect the Serbian community from the lawlessness of the ethnic Albanian
"government" headed by commanders of the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army."
It also would allow the United Nations to help restore the rule of law,
gravely compromised and critically endangered by the illegal unilateral
proclamation of secession from Serbia. The proposal by Serbia makes it clear
we are upholding Resolution 1244 and volunteering to help the U.N. maintain
the Resolution's integrity, with cooperation of Serbs in Kosovo. The United
Nations' acceptance or rejection of this offer will be a real test of
whether they intend to maintain their valid role in Kosovo under Resolution
1244.
True to form, some observers have denounced our proposal as an attempt to
"partition" Kosovo, or to have Serbs "secede." Such accusations are knowing
and malicious falsehoods. It is patently obvious to any fair-minded observer
that we seek not partition or secession but maintaining the integrity of
Resolution 1244 where possible (the areas where Serbs live) as opposed to
the Albanian-dominated areas, where the U.N.'s authority under Resolution
1244 has been negated by the separatist declaration of Feb. 17, the illegal
deployment of EULEX, and null and void foreign recognitions.
Any suggestion of partitioning Kosovo — which would be a "partition within a
partition" of Serbia's sovereign territory — contradicts every argument
Serbia has made. We consistently have rejected any attempt by any party to
impose an illegal and forcible separation of any part of our country,
however small.
Serbia will never accept an independent Kosovo, in whatever portion of the
province it may consist. One must wonder if the real agenda of those talking
about partition of Kosovo — and then blaming it on the Serbs — is further
"Balkanization" in other regions of the world.
Despite brazen violation of international norms, Serbia still trusts in
elementary standards of human decency, the rule of law, and world opinion,
which remains on our side. Most countries have not followed the U.S. lead
and continue to respect Serbia's position.
We remain ready to negotiate the broadest possible autonomy for Kosovo's
Albanians, greater than that afforded any national or religious minority
elsewhere in the world. But we will not be dictated to by anyone. We are
willing to give the foreign governments that have been so hostile to us a
chance to take a step back from the volatile situation they have created and
work with the Serbian state and the Serbian people to restore peace and the
rule of law, which they have so crudely damaged.
Slobodan Samardzic is the Republic of Serbia's minister for Kosovo.
