Post by engers on Oct 30, 2007 10:21:14 GMT -5
30 October 2007 | 13:41 -> 14:45 | Source: Tanjug
BELGRADE, BERLIN -- A resolution of the Kosovo crisis according to the 1972 Berlin Agreement is unacceptable, Slobodan Samardžiæ says.
"If this information is true, I can only say that our side cannot accept any document of such or similar content," the minister for Kosovo in the Koštunica cabinet said Tuesday in Belgrade, adding that Belgrade doubted that the information was correct, as only the Troika itself could put forward such proposals.
Earlier today, Tanjug news agency quoted its diplomatic sources as saying that Wolfgang Ischinger will ask Belgrade and Priština to settle the Kosovo status crisis according to the 1972 Berlin Agreement.
According to this report, the EU envoy to The Contact Group Troika, overseeing the negotiations between Kosovo Albanian leadership and the government in Belgrade, will propose that their relations be arranged as those of two states and in the way the two Germanys did under the deal 35 years ago.
But Samardžiæ said in reaction that anything of the kind will be ruled out by Belgrade, as it would in essence mean recognizing Kosovo as an independent state.
He reminded that the 1972 agreement between the two Germanys saw the two countries recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the other.
"Kosovo is not such a case. It is a province within Serbia under international UN administration, and its status will be set during the negotiations conducted within the Resolution 1244 framework," Samardžiæ stressed.
He added that 1244 does not allow for any agreements that resemble deals between states, such as the one signed by the two German states in 1972.
"We were therefore surprised that anyone from the Troika, much less the Troika as a whole, could put forward such a thing."
The aim of the Berlin Agreement was to establish good neighborly relations of the two Germanys and guarantee de facto, but not de jure, recognition of East Germany.
By promoting the 1972 example, diplomats indicated, Ischinger obviously has in mind the offer put forward by Prishtina on "good neighborly relations of two independent states," presented during the talks on the future status of Serbia's southern province, but not Serbia's refusal to split its own state.
Reaction of U.S. and Russian representatives in the Troika, and Prishtina are still unknown.
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