Serbian lawmakers to vote on new Kosovo resolution

26/12/2007

The Serbian parliament is expected to adopt a new resolution describing Kosovo and EU integration as the country's top priorities, while potentially setting the stage for further alienation from the West.

(Blic, Beta - 26/12/07; AFP, AP, DPA, Balkan Insight, Beta, B92, Serbian Government - 25/12/07)

Serbia's parliament will debate the draft proposal on Kosovo. [File]

The majority of Serbian lawmakers are expected to back a new resolution Wednesday (December 26th), reiterating Serbia's claim to Kosovo and threatening retaliatory measures against countries that may recognise the province's independence.

"Kosovo will be considered as an integral part of Serbia in both internal and foreign affairs," reads the draft, which also obliges Serbian institutions and officials to uphold that position until "a compromise solution to the issue is found based on [UN Security Council] Resolution 1244".

The two main parties in Serbia's coalition government -- President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS) and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) -- agreed on the text of the resolution late Monday night and sent it to the other parties in parliament.

It was drafted two weeks after Belgrade and Pristina came out of 18 months of internationally-mediated talks aimed at resolving the problem of Kosovo's future status. While technically still part of Serbia, the province has been a de facto UN protectorate since the end of the 1998-1999 conflict.

With the talks failing to produce a deal, the Kosovo Albanian majority is now planning to adopt a unilateral declaration of independence after the expected Serbian presidential runoff on February 3rd. The United States and most EU countries have signalled their preparedness to recognise an independent Kosovo, even without the UN's approval.

Throughout the negotiation process, Belgrade has been offering only broad autonomy and has rejected any plan to put the province on the path to statehood, including former UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal to grant it internationally supervised independence.

The resolution proposed by the Serbian government warns that Belgrade may downgrade diplomatic relations with any country that may recognise Kosovo's independence.

"Every act of declaration and recognition of Kosovo's independence, as well as any activities in the international community that would result from those acts, regardless of who adopts and implements them, will be declared null and void and contrary to the constitutional order of the Republic of Serbia," reads the document.

Along with Kosovo, the document also names EU integration as a top priority for Serbia. But it also warns that any international accord to be signed by the country, including its Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the Union, must contribute to the preservation of Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Furthermore, it denounce's the 27-nation bloc's plans to deploy an 1,800-strong justice and police mission to Kosovo early next year.

"Parliament declares that the establishment of the proposed EU mission for implementation of the rejected Martti Ahtisaari plan would be an act threatening the sovereignty, territorial integrity and constitutional order of the Republic of Serbia," the document said. "Parliament requests the government to reach agreement with the EU that no EU mission may enter Serbian territory or Kosovo, without a corresponding UN Security Council resolution."

Criticising NATO over its overall role in Kosovo, the draft also said that Serbia should proclaim "military neutrality with regards to existing military alliances until decided otherwise by a referendum".

Most parties are expected to back the proposed document during the voting Wednesday. But Liberal Democratic Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic was critical, saying such a resolution would mark "the end of Serbia's pro-European policies".

"We will not support the resolution because it epitomizes the return to the anti-Western isolationist policies of [former Serbian President] Slobodan Milosevic," he said.

Oliver Ivanovic, a Kosovo Serb leader, viewed the proposed resolution as being used for "daily-political purposes" that would change nothing.

"This is a frog's perspective, it's how kids see the world. It is nonsense ... that we'll harm the EU by refusing to join it," he told Belgrade-based B92. "The fact we don’t like it isn't going to stop the Albanians' allies giving them the thumbs-up to go ahead with it. If they do, it's important that we have foreign forces who we can turn to if things take a turn for the worse."

Ivanovic also criticised attempts to sow fear among Kosovo Serbs with incantations about potential violence against the community in the event of a declaration of independence.

"They all frighten us, but I think it (violence) is much less probable than before," he said."Even though everyone's scaring us with these things, I think it's a lot less likely than it was in 2004 after March 17th," he said.