No agreement
reached on Kosovo’s future status in Security Council
16 January 2008 – The
Security Council today discussed the United Nations peacekeeping
mission in Kosovo – a Serbian province where ethnic Albanians
outnumber Serbs and other minorities by nine to one – with
no agreement being reached over its future status.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Joachim
Rücker told reporters after today’s meeting that he
briefed the 15-member body about the most recent report to the
Council on the mission, known as UNMIK.
He stressed during the meeting
that recent elections “were held in a good atmosphere and
were deemed to be fair and free by the international observers.”
The Council, Mr. Rücker
said, also discussed the standards for Kosovo and the need for
increasing the number of returnees to the province, which has
been run by the UN since Western forces drove out Yugoslav forces
amid inter-ethnic fighting in 1999.
Regarding the standards, there
are “limits to what we can achieve because UNMIK, in our
assessment, has achieved what is achievable under the circumstances
and for further progress with regard to the standards we need
status and this is our assessment from the ground,” he said
to the press.
Belgrade and Pristina have been
unable to reach agreement on Kosovo’s final status: the
province’s Albanian leadership supports independence but
Serbia is opposed.
In his address to the Council
in an open portion of the meeting, President Boris Tadic of Serbia
said that despite “enormous efforts” on his side’s
part to reach a compromise, four months of negotiations led by
the troika – comprising the European Union, Russia and the
United States – “failed to yield results.”
He spoke out against “unilateral
moves,” stressing that “we must make every effort
to solve the misunderstandings and conflicts in our part of Europe
peacefully and by agreement only,” and stressed that Serbia
will not turn to “violence and war.”
Mr. Tadic also underscored that
the UN Charter “guarantees the principle of respect for
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of internationally recognized
States, which Serbia is.”
Speaking to the press after
the meeting’s conclusion, Hashim Thachi, Prime Minister
of Kosovo (Serbia), highlighted the province’s prospects
of promoting peace and stability to the entire region.
“Kosovo has established
democratic and multiethnic institutions and is ready for a final
decision,” he said. “Kosovo will become the country
of equal opportunities for all its citizens.”
Mr. Thachi also expressed his
intentions of fostering a good relationship with Serbia in the
near future.
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In 2008, UN
to embark on new course to tackle challenges – Ban Ki-moon
10 January 2008 – This
year, the United Nations will put itself on a new track to tackle
the obstacles it faces – ranging from development to health
to terrorism – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.
“The United Nations has proven, at various stages of its
history, that it is capable of remaking itself to rise to new
challenges,” he told the world body’s five regional
groups.
“2008 should be a watershed
year for putting the UN on a new track,” he added. “I
will do my utmost to ensure that this happens – by delivering
results, strengthening the Organization through full accountability,
and advancing the global common good by securing global public
goods.”
Since the midpoint to 2015 deadline
for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight targets to
slash a host of social ills – has passed, “we face
a development emergency,” with millions trapped in poverty
and going hungry, Mr. Ban said.
He said that he intends to convene
a high-level meeting on the MDGs this September in an effort to
bridge the implementation gap.
However, change must take place
within the UN itself, the Secretary-General said, noting that
“we need a more coherent, focused, and reinvigorated approach.”
The Organization will face new
challenges in peacekeeping this year, with its rising complexity,
risk level and scale, he pointed out.
The recent deployment of the
joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in the war-ravaged
Darfur region of Sudan (UNAMID), set to be the world body’s
largest with a full force of 26,000, is an immediate priority
for the UN, Mr. Ban said.
“The conduct of operations,
and the technical means to support them, need to be brought to
par with the vast demands place don them in the 21st century,”
he observed.
In the realm of politics, 2008
will not be easy for the world body, the Secretary-General said,
with the fragile Middle East peace processes, the emergence of
Iraq from conflict Kosovo’s future status being among the
challenges the UN will face.
Bolstering the Department of
Political Affairs (DPA) by increasing its field orientation and
making it more pro-active, he said, is crucial to strengthening
the Organization’s capacity for preventive diplomacy and
put in place a more integrated UN approach to responding to conflict
and supporting sustainable peace processes.
“We must deliver
results for a more just world,” Mr. Ban noted.
Secretary-General
appoints new deputy envoy for Kosovo
8 January 2008 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed
Larry Rossin of the United States as his new deputy envoy for
Kosovo, the Serbian province run by the United Nations since Western
forces drove out Yugoslav forces amid inter-ethnic fighting in
1999.
Mr. Rossin, 55, assumed his new position as Principal Deputy Special
Representative for the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)
today, a spokesperson for the world body announced.
From 2004 to 2006, he served
as Assistant Secretary-General and the Secretary-General’s
Deputy Special Representative with both the UN Stabilization Mission
in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and with UNMIK.
Before joining the UN, Mr. Rossin
was a career officer with the US Foreign Service. Among other
assignments, he served as Ambassador to Croatia, as Senior Director
for Strategic Planning and Southwest Asia on the National Security
Council, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs.
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Uncertainty
on Kosovo’s future status could lead to instability, warns
Ban Ki-moon
3 January 2008 – The loss of momentum in making progress
towards resolving Kosovo’s future status could result in
instability in the Serbian province and the greater region, even
potentially endangering United Nations staff, Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon warned in a new report made public today.
“The parties are urged to reaffirm and act upon their declared
commitments to refrain from any actions or statements that could
endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardize security in Kosovo
and the region,” Mr. Ban wrote in his latest report on the
UN peacekeeping mission in the province, known as UNMIK.
Last month, the troika –
comprising the European Union, Russia and the United States –
told the Security Council in a report that despite four months
of intense and high-level negotiations, Belgrade and Pristina
have been unable to reach agreement on Kosovo’s final status.
The province’s Albanian leadership supports independence
but Serbia is opposed.
“Neither party was willing
to cede its position on the fundamental question of sovereignty,”
said the troika, which was established after a stalemate emerged
over a proposal by Mr. Ban’s Special Envoy, Martti Ahtisaari,
for a phased process of independence for Kosovo.
In his report, Mr. Ban said
that expectations in the province, where ethnic Albanians outnumber
Serbs and other minorities by nine to one, are still high that
a solution will be reached quickly.
“As such the status quo
is not likely to be sustainable,” he noted. “Should
the impasse continue, events on the ground could take on a momentum
of their own, putting at serious risk the achievements and legacy
of the United Nations in Kosovo.”
The Secretary-General called
attention to the readiness of the EU to play a larger role in
Kosovo to bolster the province’s stability.
“The European’s
Union’s growing institutional commitment to Kosovo is important,
as is its continuing provision of a European perspective to Kosovo,”
he said.
Although encouraged by the “free
and fair manner” in which November 2007 elections were held
in the province, the Secretary-General expressed concern over
the low participation of Kosovo Serbs at the polls.
“The elections highlighted,
once again, that many members of the Kosovo Serb community, particularly
those living in northern Kosovo, do not feel represented by Kosovo’s
Provisional Institutions,” he pointed out.
Mr. Ban appealed to both
the Kosovo Serb community’s political representatives and
Belgrade authorities to encourage Serbs in the province to take
an active and constructive role in Kosovo’s institutions.
At the same time, he encouraged Kosovo’s leaders to continue
outreach efforts to Kosovo Serb and other m
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