Russia rejects UN draft resolution on Kosovo

[Crvena zvezda]

Russia rejects UN draft resolution on Kosovo
May 13, 2007 11:36 AM
MOSCOW, May 12, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Russia refuses to endorse a draft resolution which has been submitted to the United Nation Security Council, saying there are "a number of provisions" that it can not accept, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Saturday.
The United States, together with its European allies, has circulated the draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council Friday, supporting Kosovo's independence from Serbia despite Russia's opposition.
"Russia has said on numerous occasions that Kosovo's problem can be resolved only on the condition of consent from both sides, the Kosovan Serbs and Albanians rather than through any superimposed constructs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin was quoted as saying.
The draft voices support for U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari's report on Kosovo's future status, and endorses "the provision contained in the accompanying Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement."
According to Ahtisaari's package, Kosovo will get internationally-supervised independence.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday that Ahtisaari's plan could not serve as a platform for a final decision of the U.N. Security Council on Kosovo, according to Itar-Tass.
He insisted on the further implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1244, which was adopted in 1999 and set U.N. democracy standards in areas such as creating a multi-ethnic democracy, respecting human rights and ensuring the security of minority Serbs.
A southern province within Serbia before the breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and legally still part of Serbia, Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since June 1999, when NATO ended three-month air strikes against Yugoslavia.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the province's 2 million population, are demanding independence, while Serbia and the Serbs in Kosovo want it to remain inside Serbia. Kosovo's future status is being discussed at the U.N. Security Council, but a decision may be difficult to reach due to the row between the West and Russia.