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Tanjug News Agency
March 21, 2009
Russian parliament: Close Hague, renew Kosovo talks
MOSCOW - The deputies of the Russian Duma on Friday addressed the issue of
Kosovo and the UN war crimes tribunal at the Hague.
They urged president Dmitry Medvedev and PM Vladimir Putin, to make "every
possible effort so that the negotiations on Kosovo's status could be renewed
with full respect of UN Security Council Resolution 1244", and called for
the termination of the mandate of the International War Crimes Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, informally known as the Hague Tribunal.
"As long as a solution which both sides will find as satisfactory is not
reached and a corresponding legal decision adopted, Kosovo and Metohija will
continue to be an integral part of Serbia," the lower house of the Russian
parliament stated in a declaration which it adopted on the occasion of the
approaching 10th anniversary of NATO's attack against Serbia and then
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ).
The deputies pointed out that any activities which were made bypassing the
UN and which violated international law, could in no way whatsoever
contribute to the settlement of complicated conflicts and the stabilization
of the situation in the world.
NATO's military operation against one sovereign state has led to the illegal
self-proclamation of Kosovo independence, the Duma concluded.
Also in Moscow on Friday, Duma's Foreign Policy Committee Chairman
Kosntantin Kosachev said that "the sole way of resolving the Kosovo issue is
the one chosen by the Serbian authorities" and that the International Court
of Justice (ICJ) will return the Kosovo issue to the legal track.
Serbia last year gained support at the UN General Assembly to ask the ICJ
for its opinion on the legality of the Kosovo Albanians' independence
proclamation, made in February 2008, and rejected by Belgrade as illegal.
In his address to the Duma after it adopted the declaration, Kosachev noted
that in international institutions, "Serbia opposes the self-proclaimed
Kosovo independence and its recognition by the majority of Western
countries".
"The ICJ is considering Serbia's request, but it can already be said with
conviction that there are no bases for justifying Kosovo's sovereignty," he
said.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
