Post by engers on Jun 24, 2008 9:37:01 GMT -5
24 June 2008 Pristina _ The UN Secretary General will have to approve the EU’s new law and order mission in Kosovo, if the UN Security Council fails to do so, the EU’s foreign policy chief argues.
Responding to an observation from a journalist that Russia was insisting that the deployment of the European Union mission could only be decided by the United Nations Security Council, Javier Solana said that "that is a decision that should be taken by the UN Security Council but, without a decision in the Security Council, the UN Secretary General will take a decision, and we’ll apply it.”
Solana’s comments came after UN Security General Ban Ki-Moon gave the green light to ‘reconfigure’ the current UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, in light of Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia and as its new constitution came into force last week. This should clear the way for the EU mission known as EULEX.
UNMIK’s mandate has been regulated under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 passed in 1999 at the end of the conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority. However based on the blueprint devised for Kosovo’s ‘supervised independence’ devised by former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a EU law and order mission should replace the UN as the main international presence in Kosovo.
However, Serbia and its chief ally at the Security Council, Russia vehemently oppose both Kosovo’s independence and the deployment of EULEX, arguing it seeks to formalise Pristina’s independence.
Russia, which holds a veto at the UN Security Council, insists EULEX should only be given the go-ahead once it receives backing at the world body’s Security Council.
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[ftp]http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/11266/[/ftp]
Responding to an observation from a journalist that Russia was insisting that the deployment of the European Union mission could only be decided by the United Nations Security Council, Javier Solana said that "that is a decision that should be taken by the UN Security Council but, without a decision in the Security Council, the UN Secretary General will take a decision, and we’ll apply it.”
Solana’s comments came after UN Security General Ban Ki-Moon gave the green light to ‘reconfigure’ the current UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, in light of Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia and as its new constitution came into force last week. This should clear the way for the EU mission known as EULEX.
UNMIK’s mandate has been regulated under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 passed in 1999 at the end of the conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority. However based on the blueprint devised for Kosovo’s ‘supervised independence’ devised by former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a EU law and order mission should replace the UN as the main international presence in Kosovo.
However, Serbia and its chief ally at the Security Council, Russia vehemently oppose both Kosovo’s independence and the deployment of EULEX, arguing it seeks to formalise Pristina’s independence.
Russia, which holds a veto at the UN Security Council, insists EULEX should only be given the go-ahead once it receives backing at the world body’s Security Council.
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[ftp]http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/11266/[/ftp]