KOSOVO - GUIDANCE FOR STATEMENT DURING FEBRUARY

UNCLAS STATE 015126 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: UNSC PREL UNMIK YI EU SUBJECT: KOSOVO - GUIDANCE FOR STATEMENT DURING FEBRUARY 14 UNSC CONSULTATIONS ¶1. The Department requests that USUN draw on the points contained in paragraph 2 for use during the UNSC consultations on the situation in Kosovo on February 14. ¶2. Begin Points: Mr. President: For over two years Belgrade and Pristina have been negotiating to resolve the status of Kosovo. UN Special Envoy Martii Ahtisaari led negotiations for over 15 months. When the parties could not reach agreement, President Ahtisaari submitted a comprehensive proposal that enjoyed broad international support, including from the EU, NATO, the UN Secretary General, and an overwhelming majority of Security Council members. That proposal included broad provisions to protect all communities in Kosovo; President Ahtisaari recommended that Kosovo be independent subject to a period of international supervision. Much to our regret, the Council did not adopt a resolution endorsing that plan. The EU-Russia-US troika continued negotiations for four months last fall. Despite the fact that negotiators worked intensively, these negotiations also did not produce an agreement. As Ambassador Khalilzad stated to the Council on December 19, the status quo in Kosovo is unsustainable. The international community must resolve Kosovo's status. In the absence of an agreement between the parties, the United States and many countries in Europe believe that the Ahtisaari Plan remains the best way forward to promote long-term stability in the Balkan region. We need to implement the Ahtisaari plan now if we want to accelerate the integration of the entire region, including Serbia, into Euro-Atlantic institutions. I welcome FM Jeremic to the Council and take this opportunity to again acknowledge the historically close cooperation between our two countries, including as allies during two world wars. We sincerely believe that Serbia has a future of unlimited promise within the European community, integrated into its rightful place in Euro-Atlantic institutions. We look forward to deepening our relationship and helping Serbia fulfill that promise. Let us look at the situation on the ground in Kosovo. As we heard from SRSG Ruecker last month, Kosovo's authorities have in recent months made considerable progress on the implementation of UN-endorsed standards, especially those that pertain to minority rights. They carried out a fair and free election and formed a government that includes all of Kosovo's communities. They have also behaved responsibly in negotiations on Kosovo's status and demonstrated patience in response to the international community's inability to resolve the status issue. We want to express our concern regarding the government of Serbia's actions which worsen tensions in the region. First, Belgrade's call for ethnic Serbs in Kosovo to boycott the November 17, 2007 parliamentary and municipal elections only served to isolate Kosovo's Serbs, disenfranchising them, particularly at the local level where they have the most opportunity to work with ethnic Albanian neighbors in building a functioning multi-ethnic society. Second, Belgrade's opening of a Serbian Ministry office in Mitrovica on December 10 was contrary to the spirit of commitments the Government of Serbia made to the Troika negotiators. Third, there is clear evidence that Serbian officials have been engaged in intimidating ethnic Serbs in Kosovo, forbidding them from cooperation with Kosovo and international authorities and threatening their livelihoods. To our Serbian and Russian friends: As we stated before, my government profoundly regrets that Kosovo and Serbia could not reach an agreement on the final status of Kosovo. But we must not let an indefinite stalemate threaten to undo all of the other progress we have made in overcoming the dissolution of the Former Yugoslavia and hold hostage the future of Serbia and Kosovo. We call on you again to join us in ending this stalemate and to support the immediate implementation of the Ahtisaari plan. If needed: Kosovo is a special case and the UN has been treating it as such since 1999. The violent and non-consensual breakup of Yugoslavia, Milosevic's policies of oppression and ethnic cleansing that led the international community to act, UNSCR 1244 that set up a UN administration in Kosovo, severing Serbia's governance over Kosovo and envisioning a political process to determine Kosovo's status, are factors that make Kosovo different from other conflicts. As we have repeatedly stressed, the situation in Kosovo is sui generis and provides no precedent for any other part of the world. UN Resolution 1244 was specifically intended to facilitate a political process designed to determine Kosovo's future status; it aimed for an agreement between the parties but did not and could not require one. Throughout the process that Mr. Ahtisaari led, and in the troika process that then followed, every feasible effort was made to reach an agreement between the parties. Regrettably, all of those efforts were frustrated. Today's meeting is itself demonstrative of the continued lack of agreement; more talk will not stabilize the situation. In such a situation, it is clear that implementation of the Ahtisaari plan would further the purposes of 1244 far better than working to maintain a status quo that is clearly unsustainable. End Points. RICE