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Ban Ki-moon Exceeded Abdication
// Russia censured Ban Ki-moon’s Kosovo report
Last Friday the UN Security Council discussed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report, who suggested that the structure of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) should be changed and some of its functions given to the EU mission – EULEX Kosovo. Pristina, Washington and the majority of the EU states supported the proposal, whereas Russia and Serbia objected to it. Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, severely criticized Ban Ki-moon accusing him of “exceeding his commission.”
From the start of it, the discussion of Ban Ki-moon’s report bade fair to be heated. It’s the dispute over the question which international organizations can send their missions to Kosovo that is one of the major bones of contention in the relations of Serbia (and Russia as well) and the West. Pristina’s representatives ask to replace the UN mission, which has been deployed in the region back 1999 with an EU controlled mission, which Belgrade and Moscow mind. A UN Security Council resolution is needed to change the format of the mission, but Russia, which has the veto power in the body, has made no secret of the fact that it won’t concede to its adoption.
Till the last moment Ban Ki-moon would try to be formally neutral, but last month he unexpectedly sided with Pristina, sending his report to the Security Council, where he suggested that the UNMIK structure be changed.
“I came to a conclusion that the UNMIK can’t effectively fulfil the majority of its tasks as a temporary administration on the territory of Kosovo as it used to do. In this connection I ordered that the UNMIK should cooperate with the EU so that the latter could play a more important role in Kosovo,” Ban Ki-moon stated.
The document he prepared reads that the UN Secretary-General has virtually decided to give the EU’s EULEX Kosovo the key administrative functions in the region leaving only minor issues to his organization. According to the report, Ban Ki-moon “intends to carry out reconfiguration of the international civil presence in Kosovo” and “take further steps regarding practical agreements, which would give the European Union the ground for expanding its functional role” in the spheres of maintaining order, justice and customs. Proposing to deprive the UN of the main functions, the Secretary-General, however, tried to show a formal value of his organization stating that the EU will operate “under the UN’s umbrella.” Experts underscore that such a term has no definition and can be interpreted differently, and it has never been used in international documents before. So, Ban Ki-moon suggested that the full authority should be simply taken from his organization and given to the EU. Legally, it has been so put that no UN Security Council resolution will be required to do it.
In the course of the discussion Lamberto Zannier, Special Representative for the UNMIK, supported his chief claiming that the Kosovo authorities have taken practically all administrative functions. “My ability to influence the decisions taken is minimal,” Mr Zannier said stressing that the UNMIK really needs to be reconfigured. The Secretary-General’s report was also approved of by U.S. representative Zalman Khalilzad and France’s deputy representative Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
However, Russia’s ambassador Vitaly Churkin lashed out the proposal of Mr Ban. “In this situation the Secretary-General has exceeded his commission interfering in the field of the Security Council’s statute prerogatives,” Mr Churkin said during the discussion, “Russia is concerned over the attempts to destroy the formats of international presence in Kosovo established by the UN Security Council under the pretext that they allegedly do not comply with the present conditions.” Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremich, who was invited to the session, also criticised the report of Ban Ki-moon, but experts say that he spoke in a conciliatory tone. Mr Jeremich said that the parties should find “a mutual compromise.”
For all that, observers point out that Pristina, Washington and the EU will hardly compromise and will finally deprive the UN mission of its credentials. Regardless of their statements, Belgrade and Moscow have no leverages to influence the situation.
Grigory Plahotnikov
All the Article in Russian as of July 28, 2008
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