Serbia to ask UN for help on status of Kosovo
Serbia will ask the UN General Assembly for help in getting a judicial opinion on the status of Kosovo from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, its foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, says.
Mr Jeremic told the South China Morning Post during a brief stopover in Hong Kong on Sunday that Serbia's new government, which was sworn in last month, was committed to solving the Kosovo issue through peaceful means.
Serbia has opposed the province's unilateral declaration of independence, which was made in February and has been recognised by the US and other western nations. Kosovo's independence is opposed by nations including China, Russia and India.
Drawing comparisons with the recent fighting in South Ossetia, where Georgia's use of force against the breakaway region has led to war with Russia, Mr Jeremic was confident that a legal approach would win the support of most UN members and set a good precedent for nations to solve similar problems.
'The gist of this diplomatic approach is that we, from the beginning, have renounced any kind of violence,' he said.
'We are going to solve this issue only peacefully. We are not even going to impose any economic blockade [against Kosovo].'
'We will not do anything that will destabilise either the province or the region as a whole, which is not what [other] countries do when they are dealing with issues like that. I mean, look at what has been going on in the Caucasus now.'
The Serbian government has finalised a draft motion it will submit to the UN General Assembly in New York in October.
The draft says the Serbian government will ask the General Assembly to help it request the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on whether the provisional Kosovo government's declaration of independence is in accordance with international law.
Mr Jeremic said that despite the opposition and lobbying of 'some major powers' against the move, his government was confident the assembly would adopt this motion.
'This is only reasonable. Never has there been a case when a single country has asked for advice and that this has been denied by the General Assembly,' he said.
'A lot of countries [which support Kosovo's independence] are feeling nervous. The foreign minister of a major European country recently asked me to abandon the cause. But we feel this is the only chance to totally avoid confrontation.'
The capture of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic last month - a move that angered many nationalists in Belgrade - had given the Serbian government the full moral right to ask The Hague for help in solving the Kosovo issue through legal means, Mr Jeremic said.
'An important step has been made with the capture [of Karadzic]. Co-operation with The Hague tribunal is important for us. The new government has proved beyond a shadow of doubt our commitment in this,' he said.
'It was in the third week of the new government that this breakthrough was made. The other two [remaining] indictees [Karadzic's general Ratko Mladic and Croatian Serb Goran Hadzic] ... they must go as well. This chapter of history should be closed.'
Although many in Serbia had concerns over the impartiality of The Hague, he was adamant the government would stick to its decision.
