Russia warns EU and NATO to stay within their mandates in Kosovo
Russia has warned the EU and NATO to stay strictly within the mandates approved by the UN Security Council based on its Resolution 1244, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, April 11, 2008
"According to certain Western media, international forces in Kosovo are preparing actions towards Kosovo Serbs with the aim to provoke them to take response measures," the ministry officials said.
"The ground is being prepared for large-scale force influence on the Serbian population of the province with the aim to make it reconcile to independence unilaterally declared by Pristina," they noted.
"If this information is true it becomes obvious that international forces in Kosovo have failed to draw a lesson from the tragic events in Mitrovica in March this year," the ministry officials stressed.
"Such measures are fraught with a quick division of the province, a major conflict in the region," they added.
"We call on international forces, the EU and NATO to responsibly consider all the consequences of such force measures, to act in a measured and balanced manner, strictly within the mandates approved by the UN Security Council based on its Resolution 1244," the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.
Meanwhile, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and expressed hope that the U.N. will protect the Serbian community in Kosovo.
"We state with regret that the UN states failed to reach agreement on Kosovo and Metohia that resulted in the self-proclamation of Kosovo's sovereignty," Alexy II said.
He recalled that the Russian Orthodox Church supports the Serbian Orthodox Church, which recognized the act of Kosovo's parliament unlawful.
The patriarch expressed hope that the U.N. would make every effort to provide the access of the Christian believers to Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and would avert acts of defamation against religious facilities.
"I believe that Ban Ki-moon is ready for cooperation with clergymen and take into account the opinion of religious leaders," the patriarch said.
"The position of the UN secretary general on Kosovo also gives hope that the U.N. will protect the Serbian minority living in this country, and Orthodox churches, which are situated on the Kosovo soil and are national shrines for the Serbian people, will receive a special status," the patriarch pointed out.
