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UN at a Loose End
// The UN Security Council handed the Kosovo issue over to the European Union
The UN Security Council (UNSC) held its nearly most awaited session of this year: the three international mediators on Kosovo delivered their reports. The UNSC failed to solve the Kosovo status issue, and the European Union (EU) is now going to solve it unilaterally. The U.S. completely supported the idea, while Russia spoke against it. RIA Novosti’s correspondent in New York Dmitry Gornostaev, specially for Kommersant, watched the ups and downs of Kosovo debates in the UNSC.
It is no longer a sensation that former field commander of Kosovo’s liberation army Hashim Thaçi appeared in the UN headquarters. Especially as he is no longer a militant, but is an elegant gentleman wearing an expensive gray suit, and almost the prime minister of Kosovo. Thaçi came to New York as a member of the delegation headed by Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu. However, neither of them was allowed to deliver official statement, because they do not have official status from the UN’s point of view. The UNSC listened to them as individuals, because Kosovo is formally still considered Serbia’s part, which means it cannot be officially represented in the UN.
Sejdiu described how Albanians in Kosovo suffer without independence, omitting, however, that life is much harder for Serbs there. Anyway, journalists already had copies of Sejdiu’s speech. Serbia’s delegation as well provided copies of the speech of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. He, on the contrary, was trying to persuade the UNSC that it would be fatal to grant independence to Kosovo, especially without Belgrade’s agreement. Kostunica largely quoted resolution 1244 which has so far guaranteed Serbia’s territorial integrity.
Great Britain’s Ambassador Sir John Sawers was the first to come out to journalists after the UNSC closed session. Sir Sawers said he had been watching the Kosovo situation for 20 years, after which he made the main conclusion: “Events of 1999 changed the local political reality.” Among his other statements are: negotiations failed to bring result; parties failed to find the final solution for Kosovo’s status; further negotiations are pointless. Eventually, the ambassador said: if so, the EU is quite capable to undertake complete responsibility for Kosovo’s further fate, especially as Russians are still being obstinate. Journalists asked him straight forwardly:
“Can you say that negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina are over and will never resume?”
“You see, the matter is…” the British envoy began a long tirade, but did not give any specific answer.
Meanwhile, diplomats from European countries issued copies of their ambassadors’ speeches to journalists. Italians were somewhat haughty: unlike others, they were issuing copies of the speech of their foreign minister. Massimo D’Alema specially came to attend the landmark UNSC session, and sat in the chairman’s seat which belongs to his country this month.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spent a couple of minutes with journalists and carried on Sir Sawers’ ideas. A reporter asked him: “What happens to resolution 1244 now when Kosovo becomes independent? Russians say that unilateral declaration of separation from Serbia violates international law.” However, this fact did not perplex Khalilzad. He deeply inhaled and said as loudly as possible: “They…” here he stopped to think for a moment, and exhaled: “…are wrong! What about the resolution? By the way, the resolution does not interdict Kosovo’s independence.”
Khalilzad referred to some U.S. and European experts who thoroughly studied legal aspects of resolution 1244, but did not name the experts’ key arguments. The ambassador also said that he offered to his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin to support the Ahtisaari plan. That offer actually sounded like an ultimatum: “I suggested that Ambassador Churkin should think well for the last time.”
It became clear what Churkin thought at the session after Maria Zakharova, press-secretary of Russia’s UN mission, came out with a pack of papers. They proved that Russia introduces to the UNSC an offer to create a Road Map for Kosovo settlement, similar to the Road Map developed by mediators for solving the Middle East conflict.
The next to come out to journalists was an “individual” -- Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu. He thanked the UNSC for listening to him at least in that category, and promised equality to all ethnic groups in independent Kosovo. However, he immediately warned that Kosovo’s nation, that is Albanians, will never forget what they had to suffer in the 1990s. Apparently, that passage was addressed right to one of the ethnic groups.
Here the doors of the UNSC opened widely. No wonder, actually: diplomats had spent three hours in the session hall. The chairman – the Italian minister – came out first. He read out his statement for the press, underlining that he speaks as the UNSC chairman. However, answering two out of three questions posed to him, he said he cannot answer them because he is the UNSC chairman. When asked to answer them as Italian foreign minister, D’Alema just gave a smile.
A crowd of ambassadors of EU countries appeared next. They encouraged Belgium’s Ambassador Johan Verbeke, who must have been proud to have the honor of reading out what the British and the U.S. ambassadors had already said half an hour ago. His speech boiled down to the following: everyone would like to solve the Kosovo status issue in the UNSC, but the latter is not in a position to make that decision, which all of them, the EU ambassadors and the U.S. ambassador who joined them, regret. So, the EU has decided to undertake responsibility for Kosovo’s fate.
That is, the EU has unilaterally decided, without the UNSC approval, to solve the issue of Kosovo’s status.
While European ambassadors were listening to their colleague Verbeke, Khalilzad stood a little aside the microphones. He must have been tired after three hours of sitting, and attempted at neck-locking Vitaly Churkin, saying merrily:
“Those key elements of yours! I thought they died long ago!” Khalilzad meant Russia’s new initiative on Kosovo.
“Second advent,” retorted Churkin.
Eventually, he managed to get rid of his U.S. counterpart, and that was when Verbeke’s speech was over. So, the Russian ambassador took a determined step towards the microphones.
Churkin said the discussion was good, and showed there are optimists and pessimists in the UNSC concerning the Kosovo issue. Pessimists think that negotiations have exhausted themselves, and it is now time to decide upon the Kosovo status in favor of its independence. On the contrary, optimists believe it is necessary to carry on the talks. “Certainly, Russia is among optimists, and our position is based strictly on international law,” he said, en passant disproving the opinion that Russia feels isolated in relation to the Kosovo issue in the UNSC.
Churkin confirmed that Russia had distributed among the UNSC members its new initiative for developing a Road Map for Kosovo issue settlement. The ambassador underlined that no unilateral recognition of Kosovo’s independence, and no recognition of Kosovo’s independence by some countries, will make it a full-right member of the international community, nor will give it a place in the UN. That is, will not provide everything which Kosovo’s Albanians want so much.
Dmitry Gornostaev
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 21, 2007
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