http://www.tanjug.co.yu/UN/default.aspx?str=speech.htm
UN Security Council session on Kosovo-Metohija
STATEMENT
BY
H.E. MR. VOJISLAV KOTUNICA, PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
AT THE SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING ON KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
NEW YORK, 24 OCTOBER 2005
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished Members of the Security Council,
I would like to begin by expressing great respect for this august body of
the world Organisation. I am addressing you today, as representatives of the
UN Security Council Member States, in the firm belief that you constitute
the most credible and reliable guarantor of the foundations of not only the
United Nations, but of the entire world order. You know better than anyone
else that the inviolability of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
states is one of these fundamental principles.
My country, Serbia and Montenegro, is a loyal and active member of the
United Nations. Both in word and action, it has repeatedly proved its
commitment to the principles that govern world peace and stability today. In
the same spirit of trust, we expect that the Security Council will exercise
its authority and, in the case of Serbia and Montenegro and its province
Kosovo and Metohija, safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
my country.
I believe that we all share the conviction that the dismemberment of a
democratic state and the change of its internationally recognised borders
against its will are options not to be contemplated. This would not only be
an unprecedented case in international law and the practice of the United
Nations, but also a dangerous precedent with grave long-term consequences
for the international order in general. I would like you to consider that
the responsibility facing the Security Council today is not related solely
to the fate of a single Balkan state. What is at stake here is a set of core
principles that the United Nations is based upon, and should act upon, in
its mission of safeguarding the world peace.
It is very important for me, Mr. President, to emphasize to the Security
Council that Serbia and Montenegro is fully prepared to assume its share of
responsibility in the process of resolving the Kosovo and Metohija issue, in
accordance with the fundamental principles of international law and the
democratic values of the contemporary world. Within this general framework,
we are committed to a compromise solution and willing to ensure substantial
autonomy for Kosovo and Metohija as a part of the State Union of Serbia and
Montenegro. The future of my country, of the region and, to a certain
extent, of Europe itself will depend on a just and viable solution to the
Kosovo issue. We, thus, come before this forum with respect and trust,
expecting it to make a vital contribution in the spirit of its previous
documents, and in particular the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of June
10, 1999. This Resolution clearly reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Serbia and Montenegro, and we are confident that the future
decisions of the Security Council will not depart from this fundamental
principle of the United Nations.
I
Mr. President, the UN Security Council today faces a daunting task. It has
to decide whether to move to the next stage in resolving the Kosovo and
Metohija issue, even though the precisely defined tasks of the previous
stage remain uncompleted. At the previous sessions of the Security Council
on Kosovo and Metohija, we have offered several fully documented assessments
of the difficult situation in the province, with a particular emphasis on
the hopeless position of Serbs and other non-Albanians. We have repeatedly
provided convincing information not only on the absence of multi-ethnicity
in Kosovo and Metohija, but also on grave violations of the fundamental
rights and freedoms, from the right to life itself to freedom from fear.
Ambassador Kai Eides report, which is before the Security Council today,
has two main aims: to provide a comprehensive assessment of the situation in
Kosovo and, on the basis of that assessment, to determine whether talks on
the future status of the province should be initiated. In particular,
Ambassador Eides task was to evaluate progress in the implementation of
standards that constitute the foundation of a democratic, multiethnic and
economically viable society.
In his comprehensive review, Ambassador Eide presents many essentially
important facts, particularly with regard to the difficult position of the
Serbian and other non-Albanian communities in Kosovo and Metohija. I quote:
Little has been achieved to create a foundation for a multiethnic society,
so that the situation in this respect is grim. The minority communities
and especially the Kosovo Serbs suffer from more than a perceived
insecurity. In any case, according to Ambassador Eide, it is difficult to
expect that people from minority communities should take risks in order to
verify whether freedom of movement and security are or are not realities.
At present, property rights are neither respected nor ensured, he says,
and these include many cases of illegal seizure of Serbian state property
through the privatisation process that are not specifically mentioned in his
report. Illegal construction and occupation of homes
is a widespread
phenomenon. Where minority communities are concerned, the Eide report
states, harassment, looting, stealing of cattle, and other similar
incidents occur very frequently. This comes in addition to widespread
illegal occupancy of property, especially agricultural land, which makes it
impossible to access such property and to use it or cultivate it without a
security risk.
The following sentences in the Eide report are particularly significant, Mr.
President: Lack of security and respect for property rights as well as
uncertainty about the future, contribute heavily to the fact that the
overall return process has virtually come to a halt. There is a strong
feeling that those who commit crimes enjoy impunity and that the possibility
for establishing viable livelihoods is very limited. The great majority of
the people who left Kosovo after June 1999 have not come back. These
statements gain particular importance in the light of precise data not
offered in the report. Today, more than 60 per cent of Kosovo Serbs are
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in central Serbia. Apart from Northern
Mitrovica, there are no more Serbs in Pristina, Prizren, Pec, Gnjilane,
Urosevac, and other towns in the province. The Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija
are now reduced to a dwindling rural population, living in fear and often
deprived of their most basic rights. The best illustration of the precarious
legal position of the Serb community in Kosovo and Metohija is the fact that
17,000 court cases involving individual property claims by local Serbs have
been positively resolved, but none of these decisions have been implemented.
Since June 1999, Orthodox Christianity has been exposed to deliberate and
brutal persecution. Some 150 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been
destroyed or irreparably damaged, Orthodox cemeteries throughout the
province have been desecrated and in many cases destroyed, Orthodox
Christians have been denied the basic right to profess and practice their faith.
The Eide report attributes these massive violations of human and minority
rights not only to ethnically motivated violence against minorities, but
also to the fragility and malfunctioning of institutions, particularly the
police and judiciary. This holds both of the provisional institutions at the
central level (where, as the report emphasizes, the Kosovo Serbs fear that
they will become a decoration
with little ability to yield tangible
results), and of the institutions of local self-government, which with
regard to the protection of the Serb and other non-Albanian communities
have not been properly defined yet, let alone implemented.
In spite of all these facts, Ambassador Eide recommends that we should move
into the next stage of the process, the future status talks. He also adds
that there will not be any good moment for addressing Kosovos future
status, and insists that the implementation of standards should continue
throughout the future status talks. Nevertheless, the critical question
remains: whether the future status talks can succeed if the crucial
standards with regard to human rights and basic freedoms in Kosovo and
Metohija are neither fulfilled, nor anywhere near fulfillment in the
foreseeable future. Today I believe we have to answer this question as
follows. It is only through a serious, completely realistic assessment of
the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, to which Ambassador Eides report is a
significant contribution, that we can attain what I want to see as a common
aim of all those involved in the Kosovo issue a democratic and multiethnic
Kosovo and Metohija, where respect for rights will replace fear and violence.
II
Mr. President, I wish to underline here that in the forthcoming talks Serbia
and Montenegro will be fully guided by the general principles and norms of
international law and universally accepted democratic values. Let me also
express, on behalf of my country, the firm belief that the Security Council
will act upon the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity of
democratic states, and so define the framework and mandate of future status
talks as talks on the future status of Kosovo and Metohija as a province
within the internationally recognized state of Serbia and Montenegro. I want
to point out, Mr. President, that all the principles for resolving the
Kosovo and Metohija issue, which I am relying on here, are precisely the
principles of the United Nations, which the Security Council is responsible
for implementing.
Our first principle, I repeat, is that any solution must respect the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and Montenegro as an
internationally recognized state, a member of the United Nations and other
international organizations. This principle is supported by the basic
sources of international law including, inter alia, the United Nations
Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, while in the particular case at hand it
is confirmed by the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, where the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and Montenegro, is
recognized expressis verbis. Apart from the basic sources of international
law, the borders and territorial integrity of the states created after the
break-up of former Yugoslavia are additionally guaranteed by specific
international documents and agreements such as the Opinions of the
Arbitration Commission of the Conference on Yugoslavia (in particular,
Opinion No. 3 of January 11, 1992) and the General Framework Agreement for
Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina of November 21, 1995 (the Dayton-Paris
agreement).
In addition to being supported by the basic sources and rules of
international law, this principle is confirmed by all Security Council
resolutions covering the Kosovo crisis prior to Resolution 1244, namely
Resolutions Nos. 1160 (1998), 1199 (1998), 1203 (1998) and 1239 (1999). They
all recognize expressis verbis the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
Serbia and Montenegro. Let me also say that I see the Security Council,
itself legally bound by the United Nations Charter, as the right place to
state unambiguously that in this instance we are not discussing non-binding
obligations of states but rather most stringent norms of international law,
the jus cogens norms, the respect for which is a sine qua non condition for
the international community to function as a whole.
Second, the future status talks should take into account the fact that
Serbia and Montenegro is a democratic state. We find it inconceivable, as I
am sure do the members of this august body, that solutions should be imposed
against its will on any democracy, least of all solutions that threaten its
internationally recognised borders. Any attempt at imposing such a solution
through de facto legalization of a partition of Serbia, i.e. through
forcible secession of a part of its territory, would be tantamount not only
to legal violence against a democratic state, but against international law
itself.
Third, our political efforts will be directed to defining a specific and
viable form of substantial autonomy for Kosovo and Metohija, whereby the
legitimate interests of Kosovo Albanians will be fully acknowledged. Allow
me to remind you that substantial autonomy for the province was proposed as
a political solution for the Kosovo crisis by the Security Council
Resolution 1160 (1998), and reaffirmed by the Conclusions of G8 Foreign
Ministers of May 6, 1999 and the June 1999 Agreement that brought an end to
the hostilities.
I believe that the members of this august body will agree with me when I say
that a peaceful negotiated solution to Kosovo and Metohijas future status
within the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro will be a decisive step
towards European integration, not only for my country, but for the region as
a whole. A negotiated solution implies a compromise that will make it
impossible for Serbs and Albanians alike to attain all their goals and
aspirations. On the other hand, it is only compromise that can further our
integration into the European economic, social and cultural space and,
ultimately, the European Union itself.
These fundamental commitments, Mr. President, constitute a framework within
which our country, with good intentions and faith in the future, is
embarking upon the process of defining the future status of Kosovo and Metohija.
III
The future status process, Mr. President, will have the best likelihood of
success if, in its crucial and most sensitive part, it takes the form of
direct talks between representatives of the two sides. I am certain that we
can all agree that future status talks should aim at a negotiated solution
to be reached by the parties, with adherence to the essential principles and
norms of international law. If this is genuinely our goal, our talks must be
direct. If this cannot be achieved immediately, at the very beginning, it is
clear that the Special Envoy must do his best to make it possible. It is our
firm belief that the only way to attain a negotiated solution is through
direct talks, mediated by the Special Envoy and his associates.
Finally, I would like to say that the general situation in Serbia and
Montenegro, as well as in Kosovo and Metohija, differs greatly from that of
June 1999. A democratic government has been established in Serbia, Serbia
and Montenegro has resolved its status within the United Nations and
irrevocably joined the European integration process. This has added a
democratic dimension to the internationally recognized sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Serbia and Montenegro, which were already clearly
reaffirmed in June 1999. Genuine respect for human and minority rights, good
neighbourly relations, and peace in the region and the world have become the
principal guidelines of my countrys domestic and foreign policy. Serbia and
Montenegro is increasingly affirming itself as a bulwark of basic democratic
values, both within its territory and in the region.
Allow me, Mr. President, to close this speech by stating that my country is
committed to making every effort to reach a negotiated solution based on
compromise, together with the Security Council and in a way compatible with
the norms of international law. I hope that the other party to the dispute
will be ready to assume its share of responsibility. I am convinced that the
international community, embodied in the United Nations, will not succumb to
threats of violence and permit a dismemberment of a democratic state and the
undermining of the most basic principles of the international order. I am
convinced and no one can understand this better than you, that no democratic
and free state could accept this under any circumstances. For, ladies and
gentlemen, this is exactly what we are discussing today.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, knowing that we share common principles
underlying both the international legal order and the UN itself, I express
full confidence in the Security Council and its just treatment of the Kosovo
and Metohija issue. I expect from you today nothing less than elementary
justice, and nothing more than agreement that my country is entitled to the
protection of the same universal principles that apply to each one of your
countries, as well as to all states that belong to the world family of
democratic nations.
In the belief that the Security Council will consider in full earnest the
arguments I have presented, I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for
the opportunity to address this important session.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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