Serbia glad, Kosovo peeved at UN backing of EU mission

European police, law and customs force to take over next month

EULEX police officers prepare their uniforms before the visit by the head of the European mission in Kosovo, French Lieutenant General Yves de Kermabon, to Camp Laszlo, near the Kosovo village of Pole, yesterday.

By David Vujanovic - Agence France-Presse

BELGRADE – The UN’s endorsement of a plan to deploy a European mission in Kosovo was welcomed yesterday by Serbia but seen as a major setback in the disputed Albanian-majority territory.

In a unanimous vote, the 15-member United Nations Security Council endorsed the plan by UN chief Ban Ki-moon paving the way for the European Union’s rule of law mission to be fully operational by December.

The move ends a four-month power vacuum in Kosovo, a UN-administered southern pro-vince of Serbia which unilaterally declared independence on February 17.

It was hailed promptly by the Belgrade government as a way to stabilize the Balkans and help minority Serbs who account for little more than 100,000 of Kosovo’s 2 million population.

“We view the acceptance of Ban Ki-moon’s report with great satisfaction. The decision... is very important for the further development of relations in the region,” Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic told reporters yesterday.

His deputy Ivica Dacic said, “For the first time after many years, the Security Council has taken a decision which is not contrary to Serbia’s interests, also confirmed by the fact Kosovo Albanians were against it.” In Pristina, the office of President Fatmir Sejdiu reiterated Kosovo’s opposition to the plan which provisionally leaves the Serb-populated north and enclaves under the UN umbrella.

“We remain opposed to any solution which questions the sovereignty of Kosovo and its constitution,” the president’s spokesman, Xhavit Beqiri, told reporters.

He added however that “EULEX is welcome in Kosovo” under a blueprint devised by former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari for Kosovo’s “internationally supervised independence.” The ethnic Albanian majority fear the plan could lead to the creation of a Serbian mini-state within Kosovo.

“Now is the time for the Kosovar (parliament) to... reach a consensus that rejects the setback to 1999 and Kosovo’s partition,” analyst Avni Zogiani said in a commentary published in Koha Ditore daily.

Kosovo has been run by the UN’s interim mission UNMIK since NATO’s 1999 air strikes drove out Serb forces waging a bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters.

Under the UN plan, the mission known as EULEX is to take over from the UN’s postwar mission, mentoring Kosovo’s transition and controlling police, justice and customs while remaining neutral regarding its independence.

While sidestepping the question of Kosovo’s independence with vague wording, the UN declaration adopted a six-point agreement for the deployment reached between the United Nations and Serbia.

UN Secretary-General Ban has said EULEX would observe strict neutrality regarding Kosovo’s independence, meaning the EU mission would not convey any UN recognition of the territory’s status.

Despite differences on the UN plan, the foreign ministers of Serbia, Vuk Jeremic, and Kosovo, Skender Hyseni, promised their governments’ cooperation with EULEX during a debate preceding the Security Council vote.

The United Nations has not made a decision on Kosovo’s independence but more than 50 countries, including the United States and most European countries, have backed the move.