D’Alema: Troika’s document is replacement for Ahtisaari’s plan
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said on Tuesday in Belgrade that the working document presented by the Contact Group’s mediating troika was a replacement for the proposal by former UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, which had failed to pass through the UN Security Council.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, October 24, 2007
"What the troika has proposed is a replacement for the Ahtisaari plan," D'Alema said. According to him, the Serbian government gives too much attention to symbols and clings on to each word said about Kosovo, which prevents it from seeing what is really being offered.
"Independence is not the point, but what the plan really offers," the Italian minister said.
At the Monday talks in Vienna, the troika offered its working paper with 14 points, which does not mention a solution for the status of Kosovo, or its independence. It says that there is no going back to the situation before 1999, i.e. that Belgrade will not be physically present in Kosovo. In response to the document, Belgrade proposed its own 14 points for the continuation of talks with Pristina.
In a conversation with D'Alema, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica urged Italy, "if the Albanian separatists proclaim unilateral independence after December 10," to refrain from recognizing that "illegitimate creation."
Kostunica also called on Italy to implement the binding U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, which guarantees Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as essential autonomy for the Albanian ethnic minority in the province.
Kostunica warned that "regional stability and prosperity cannot be built on the foundation of stripping Serbia of its territory." "Whoever reaches for the violation of the Resolution 1244 will bear responsibility for undermining international order and thus for jeopardizing peace in the long run," the Serbian prime minister said, adding that "Serbia is strongly determined to find a compromise solution in line with the U.N. Charter and Serbian Constitution."
Serbian President Boris Tadic, during his meeting with Massimo D'Alema, said that Serbia was determined to persevere in its efforts to reach a compromise status solution through direction negotiations.
Any kind of unilateral and imposed solution, as he put it, would lead to instability and would be a dangerous precedent for the region and the whole world.
