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Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said that the Belgrade negotiating team would insist on the adoption of two fundamental principles – that the negotiating process be founded on UNSCR 1244 and that there should be no unilateral moves.
UNSCR 1244 is a document that must define the negotiating process on the future status of Kosovo and this is a principled position that is difficult to dispute, said Jeremic.

He pointed out that it was extremely difficult to negotiate while there is a threat of unilateral moves. He assessed that Serbia, by supporting a compromise solution for Kosovo, was in fact fighting for the European future of the Balkans.

While in the recent weeks the Serbian leadership is referring to UNSCR 1244 frequently, it is in fact their side that hasn’t followed the majority of the points on this resolution.

Laws passed under the UNMIK administration

According to UNSCR 1244, UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is the only governing body in Kosovo, therefore all the laws that were passed in Kosovo must be recognized by Serbia.

This includes the outcome of the privatization process that is currently taking place in Kosovo must be recognized by Serbia. Serbia has threatened with lawsuits for the “sale of Serbia’s property in Kosovo”.

Parallel Structures run by Belgrade in areas populated by Serb minority

According to UNSCR 1244, all the parallel governing structures in Kosovo that are supported by Serbia should cease their activity. Belgrade should cut support for these structures and operate with UNMIK’s efforts to establish civil administration in these regions, as required by UNSC 1244.

Belgrade should identify and assist with the arrest of the members of the Serb gangs (like the “Bridgewatchers”) where sufficient evidence of criminal activity exists.

Travel and other UNMIK issued documents

Serbia must recognize all the UNMIK issued documents (ID Cards, Driver Licenses, Vehicle Plates and Registrations and UNMIK Travel Documents). While most of the countries (including US, EU Countries, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria) have recognized the UNMIK issued travel documents, Serbia has refused to even talk about possibly recognizing these documents.

Elections boycott

Finally, since the elections in Kosovo are being organized by UNMIK (the only governing body in Kosovo – authorized by UNSCR 1244), Serbia must endorse these elections and encourage Kosovo Serbs to vote – not threaten them, like they are doing now.

Summary

Just like in the 90’s, when one UN resolution after another were being ignored by Serbs during the butchery in Bosnia, they are doing the same now. Only this time, they are not ignoring the resolution as a whole – they are only ignoring the paragraphs that they do not like, and are referring to the paragraphs that they like.

Unfortunately for Serbian nation, although Milosevic is gone, many of his tactics are still being utilized to keep this area the Black Hole of Europe.

Here we go again…

On September 26, 2007, Serbia’s Prime Minister threatened that “Serbia will make clear that Kosovo will not be independent“. 

How will they do that remains to be seen. Thankfully, this time they are not able to use their brutal methods of preventing Kosovo’s self-determination. They no longer have their military apparatus to suppress the independent Kosovo movement like they did many times from 1912 through 1999. This time their threats are reduced to local TV appearances, political campaigns and occasional UN Charter Interpretation sessions in the UN Assembly (also known as microphone abuse sessions), with the assistance of Putin’s Russia of course.

Belgrade’s message, as Serbian government and Kosovo Albanian teams meet for direct talks Friday, will be that the province cannot become an independent country and that a unilateral proclamation of independence would represent “political gangland,” Koštunica said Wednesday, ahead of his departure for New York.

Vojislav Koštunica’s Past Predictions Statistics

• A person who in his election campaign repeated Slobodan Milosevic’s rhetoric and he “condemned “NATO’s criminal bombing of Yugoslavia” and denounced the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia (ICTY) as “an American tribunal — not a court, but a political instrument” (Steven Erlanger and Carlotta Gall, NYT, Sept. 21). Presently, Serbia is openly expressing willingness to join the NATO alliance.
• Koštunica also rejected in multiple occasions demands for the extradition of his predecessor, Slobodan Milosevic, to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. To our surprise, he shipped Slobo to the Hague. Also, Serbia’s ICTY cooperation has intensified greatly in the recent years.
• This bullet is reserved for the time when he agrees to let Kosova go, just like he agreed with the two items above.

Continuing with the news article…

“We will make it clear at the negotiations in New York that Kosovo will not be independent,” Koštunica underlined in an interview to Tanjug news agency. The prime minister also pointed to the fact that there was “an essential difference between an independent country and unilateral independence.” “This is a difference between the legitimate and that contrary to law, that which represents an illegal existence, i.e. some kind of political gangland,” Koštunica said. “For Serbia, all the documents referring to unilateral independence are illegal and, therefore, invalid,” he said.

Using the definition above, Serbia appears quite a political gangland.

On November 8 2006,  Serbia held a referendum for its new Constitution. Sadly, only 75% of Serbia’s population was given the right to vote for a document (plagiarized from Croatia and some portions from other European countries) that Serbia now uses as a “constitution”.
The other 25% (Kosovo Albanians) of what Serbia considers its “population” were not given the right to vote.  Out of those 75%, only 53.66% voted FOR this constitution. That puts the referendum approval percentage to a merely 36%.

The hypocrisy of this “referendum” and this “constitution” reached its peak when the drafters of this document defined Kosovo as an “integral part” of Serbia with “fundamental autonomy” in its preamble, while Kosovo’s 95% of residents were not allowed to vote.

Koštunica’s government knew really well what would happen if Kosovar Albanians were given the chance to vote. The simple inclusion of their ballots in the overall number of eligible voters would have dropped the number of “YES” votes to mid 35% and the referendum would have failed.

That, my friends, is what I call a pure example of political gangland. Oh yeah, that also makes the Serbian constitution “illegal and, therefore invalid” for Kosovars.

Back to our news article…

“All the member states of the UN, and therefore the United States as well, have an explicit international obligation to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, which is guaranteed by the UN Charter and which is explicitly confirmed by Resolution 1244.” “The respect of international law represents the only path that can bring us to a compromise and lasting solution,” Koštunica told the agency.

The same UN Charter that Mr. Kostunica points to quite frequently has the principle of self-determination prominently embodied in the first Article. Did someone rip the pages containing the first Article from his UN Charter book? I bet you that Boris Tadic was playing a prank just to make Kostunica look stupid in front of the cameras. Bad bad boy Tadic! You should be more serious about Kosovo since it can win your re-election…

Conclusion of the article…

The prime minister and President Boris Tadic will on Sept. 26 in New York meet with the Priština delegation representing ethnic Albanian leadership for direct talks.

Bottom line – you can not negotiate and be forced to re-integrate and live with someone who wants to make you believe that you do not have the right to self-determination, especially if that someone belongs to a state whose government has killed over 10,000 of your countrymen.