Russia warns against transfer of Unmik powers to Eulex
Russia's Foreign Ministry warned on Tuesday that any transfer of Unmik’s authority to the European Union mission Eulex would contravene international law.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, May 21, 2008
"The deployment of the mission, known as EULEX, requires a separate resolution of the United Nations Security Council," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Boris Malakhov said in a statement.
Malakhov said that if reports that authority and property is being handed over by the mission to the EU are confirmed, these moves would be in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and "must be stopped immediately".
The Eulex mission is postponing its full deployment in Kosovo after the UN and the EU failed to reach a common position on the issue.
After a series of talks on the future international deployment in Kosovo, the gap between UN and the EU remains wide, as both organizations struggle to create a balance between Western and Russian interests in region.
The EU had rejected Russian proposal to keep its mission under UN umbrella, tearing another page from the already thin notebook in the Kosovo-related exit strategy.
UNMIK personnel have had their contracts tentatively extended until the end of year, which comes as a surprise for most of international officials who expected that UN mission would cease to exist right after Kosovo's new constitution comes to power on June 15.
Some 40 out of 192 UN member countries have so far recognized Kosovo's unilaterally-declared independence, with Russia and Serbia strongly opposing the move, calling it a dangerous precedent and major breach of international law.
In addition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, backed by his counterparts from India and China, recently called for continuous negotiations over Kosovo's status, but the initiative had been immediately rejected by the United States and Kosovo Albanian leaders.
