By DPA
New York : With Kosovo’s pending declaration of independence, the UN Security Council was to meet Thursday while Russia and Serbia threatened to pull out all diplomatic stops in opposing the move.
At UN headquarters in New York, diplomats kept their cool as they prepared to once again tackle the issue of Kosovo. The 15-nation council deadlocked last year on the issue and sent it to the European Union (EU) in Brussels.
But the Albanian-led government in Pristina was determined to move ahead for a unilateral declaration of independence Sunday.
The EU plans to meet Monday to assess the consequence and decide, most likely on a state-by-state basis, whether to support Kosovo’s independence.
In Pristina, capital of Kosovo, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci rejected the UN council’s jurisdiction despite the fact that Kosovo’s democratic institutions were built by the UN and its security funded and supported by NATO and the EU.
“Kosovo has its common agenda, which was designed together with the international authorities, and we are expecting strong support for it,” Thaci said without specifying what those authorities are.
“The issue of Kosovo is now outside the building of the UN Security Council,” he said. “As far as the status is concerned, everything is ready … the people of Kosovo know the date of the declaration of the independence, and the decision will be made very soon.”
The UN mission in Kosovo, which first arrived in Pristina in 1999 following the carpet-bombing by NATO that drove out Serb security forces accused of atrocities against Albanian ethnics, has been bracing for the showdown between Kosovo and Serbia.
“We’re synchronising the plans, the security plans,” said Joachim Ruecker, the head of the UN mission in Pristina. “We are prepared for any eventuality, and we don’t expect any difficulty. We believe that Kosovo’s people are mature and interested in peace and stability.”
On Thursday, Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic will be the only non-council member to address the body following his government’s request for the closed-door meeting. Kosovo did not request to attend.
Jeremic requested the urgent meeting because of “the extremely grave situation in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohhija where we witness the final preparatory activities for a unilateral declaration of independence,” he said in a letter to council president, Panamanian Ambassador Ricardo Alberto Arias.
Diplomats said that the request for a council meeting by Russia and Serbia was designed to drive a wedge between countries in the EU, which already is divided on the issue.
In Belgrade, Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Wednesday Kosovo’s declaration of independence would be annulled by the Serb parliament because it would be a “fake state” within Serb territory.
The UN Security Council had been unable to resolve the issue of Kosovo independence even though many members, including the US, France, Italy, Belgium and Britain, supported independence under international supervision.
A wedge already existed within the council, with Russia and China opposing independence. Small nations on the council like South Africa supported negotiations to resolve the issue.
The council had adopted resolutions recognising Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. But Kosovo Albanians’ drive for independence forced the hands of the US and Europeans on the council to support its independence.
The US could be among the first countries to recognise Kosovo, while there was no certainty that the EU would take the decision as a bloc.
Fearing turmoil, the EU decided Wednesday to deploy a 3,000-strong police and justice mission to Kosovo “within days” in order to begin implementing an internationally supervised independence plan.
Serbia rejects the arrival of the mission as well, calling it a violation of international law and Serbia’s territorial integrity. It said the EU mission must first be authorised by the council in New York.