http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31379&cid=56&p=20.08.2008
Voice of Russia
August 20, 2008
UN MISSION IN KOSOVO
Yevgeny Kryshkin
-The officials of the EU mission consider that their
task is Kosovo state building. The US and its EU
partners made this move when their attempts to split
Serbia by a special UN resolution ended in failure.
Serbia responded to the move describing it as a
provocation and said is ready to lodge a protest
against the heads of the UN mission.
The format of international presence is being
arbitrarily changed in Kosovo.
Currently, the handing over of the buildings and
vehicles of the UN mission in Kosovo to a European
Union mission to assure the supremacy of law is going
on in the Serbian province of Kosovo where Albanian
separatists declared independence.
The UN Secretariat gave permission for the move
although it has no authority to do so.
The international presence in the province is
determined by UN Security Council resolution 1244.
Consequently, any changes in the format should be
carried out only by the approval of the Security
Council and also with the consent of the parties that
are involved in the conflict.
The absence of these conditions has prompted a Russian
expert Alexander Pikaev to qualify the developments in
Kosovo as gross violation of established procedure.
Alexander Pikaev says that UN bureaucrats violate the
UN Charter. Russia has more than once emphasized that
the secretariat and the UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon must stop activity that contradicts the UN
Security Council resolution and the UN Charter. This
is a serious legal conflict, said Alexander Pikaev.
When taking into account the fact that the Mission set
up by the European Union to assure the supremacy of
law has no UN mandate for its presence in Kosovo, the
handing over of powers to it is doubly illegal.
The transfer of the buildings and vehicles of the UN
mission to the EU mission is the start of putting
Kosovo under a European Union administration.
The move is aimed at establishing Kosovo statehood and
prompting the international community to recognize it.
In fact, no one tries to hide this. The officials of
the EU mission consider that their task is Kosovo
state building. The US and its EU partners made this
move when their attempts to split Serbia by a special
UN resolution ended in failure.
Serbia responded to the move describing it as a
provocation and said is ready to lodge a protest
against the heads of the UN mission. Earlier, Russia’s
ambassador to Serbia Alexander Konuzin also said that
the move was illegal.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
