Kostunica calls on Council of Europe to support a negotiated solution

In an address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Kostunica said Serbia's proposal for Kosovo's substantial autonomy was based on the three basic European principles: human rights, democracy and rule of law.

"The proposal we have presented in New York says that Serbia is ready to offer the Albanian national minority the status of the most privileged national minority in the world", Kostunica said.

The Prime minister warned that some European countries were considering the recognition of a possible unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo Albanians.

"We have to ask, here in the Council of Europe, the most natural question possible: if some European states decide today to break the Resolution 1244, what could stop any European state to break some other Security Council resolution in the future, if it suits its interests?", Kostunica said.

"We can also see that a large non-European country is convincing us that we should resolve a problem in the heart of Europe by a direct breaking of the UN Charter, and that it would not be a precedent, but a regular and normal state of affairs", Serbia's Prime minister said.

In his speech, Kostunica rejected the possibility that Serbia would accept an imposed solution and rated a unilaterally proclaimed independence of the province as unsustainable.

"I assure you it is impossible to impose a solution on Serbia and that any unilaterally proclaimed independence would prove unsustainable. Unilaterally proclaimed independence would only exacerbate the problem and then fall through, which would take us back to finding a democratic and sustainable solution," he said.

In case ethnic Albanian authorities in Kosovo declare independence unilaterally after December 10, Kostunica added, the Serbian government would only intervene within the limits of international law and Resolution 1244 of the U.N. Security Council.

While in Strasbourg, Kostunica had separate meetings with CoE Secretary General Terry Davis and PACE President Rene van der Linden. After meeting with Davis, Kostunica voiced the hope that the second round direct talks on Kosovo between the delegations from Pristina and Belgrade, set to take place on October 14, in Brussels, would be more "direct" in comparison to the previous ones.

"I expect the talks to be even more direct compared to the previous direct talks of the two delegations and that this will be an opportunity for the two sides to set forth but also defend their positions and to exchange political views", Kostunica said.

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