|
February 26, 2003
ERP KIM Newsletter 26-02-03 b
Special Edition
CONTENTS:
Urgent communiqué of the SNC KIM regarding
today's session in Kosovska Mitrovica and the accusations of UNMIK chief
Michael Steiner
DECLARATION OF UNION OF SERB MUNICIPALITIES AND MUNICIPAL
UNITS HAS THE GOAL OF PRESERVING INTERNATIONAL BORDERS AND MULTIETHNICITY
AND DECISIVELY OPPOSES SEPARATISM AND DIVISIONS
COMMUNIQUE
OF THE SERB NATIONAL COUNCIL
OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
TOP
GRACANICA, February 25, 2003
The Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija expresses its
wholehearted support for the text of the Declaration on the Sovereignty
and Territorial Integrity of the Republic of Serbia and the Union of
Serbia and Montenegro (USM) in Kosovo and Metohija and welcomes the
adopted directives for the further work of the Union of Serb
Municipalities and Municipal Units.
The fundamental goal of this Declaration is to once again publicly
affirm the principle of sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the Union of Serbia and Montenegro in Kosovo and Metohija,
which is every day increasingly at risk through the activities of Albanian
separatism and terrorism. The Serb people in Serbia's
southern province are decisively against the secession of state territory
and the creation of a monoethnic society.
For this very reason at today's session decisive support was shown for the
principle of unchangeability of international borders in
the Balkans, which cannot be
arbitrarily changed according to the will of a minority population (i.e.
Albanians in USM) . The Declaration of the Union of Serb Municipalities
therefore represents a strong affirmation of the
principles of Resolution 1244
which decisively recognize the Province of Kosovo and Metohija as an
integral part of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its
successor, the present Union of Serbia and Montenegro (USM), a country
which despite ten years of new Balkan wars remains the
most multiethnic state in the Balkans.
The Serb community in Kosovo and Metohija by its most recent decisions and
activities also desires to intensify the process of
implementation of as yet unfulfilled provisions of UN Resolution 1244 at
least in those parts of the Province where this is possible and where
citizens of Serbia who respect the state organization and sovreignity are
living. This certainly does not
mean abandoning the intention of fully implementing the Resolution
throughout the Province when the necessary conditions for this are created
and when the international community makes this possible.
Absolutely unacceptable to the SNC KIM is the hasty judgment of UNMIK
chief Michael Steiner that the Serbs allegedly aspire to a monoethnic
society. Mr. Steiner, as the head of UNMIK, has no moral
right to accuse the Kosovo Serbs of monoethnicity because it is in fact
under the rule of the UN mission that Kosovo has for the first time in its
long history become an almost completely monoethnic Albanian society in
which members of the non-Albanian communities lack the most basic of human
rights.
Mr. Steiner calls for adherence to UN Resolution 1244, even though for
more than three years it is UNMIK, with its policy of passive tolerance of
Albanian nationalism, which has made it practically
impossible to fulfill the fundamental provisions of that Resolution and de
facto possible to create an ethnically pure, second Albanian state in the
Balkans. The UN resolution cannot be implemented selectively but
integrally in all its aspects.
Let us look at the results achieved thus far in the implementation of UN
SC Resolution 1244. The Province of Kosovo and Metohija still has not been
constituted as a 'substantial autonomy'
within the framework of Serbia and Montenegro; the return of all expelled
citizens (especially Serbs and Roma) have not been enabled; absolutely all
elements of the state sovereignty of Serbia and Montenegro have been
eliminated in the Province and the return of a Serbian army and police
contingent foreseen by Resolution 1244 is not permitted. What is more,
Kosovo and Metohija today is already an almost completely
formed state of the Albanian people in which the Serbs, as a constituent
and constitutive people of the Republic of Serbia and Serbia and
Montenegro are reduced to the level of a national minority without any
rights and foreigners in their own land.
The Serb language and script have been erased from almost the entire
Province, flags of the Republic of Albania fly in all institutions and
public places, while never disarmed bands of former KLA members roam the
Province despite the presence of 40,000 KFOR actively destabilizing the
entire region. The cultural heritage of the Serb people, churches and
cemeteries have been exposed to barbaric destruction, and the state of
Serbia has not been allowed to do anything to protect the rights of its
citizens, their private property, and its own state property.
With this situation on the ground the Serb people has more than the
full right to undertake urgent measures to protect its
rights and freedom and, first and foremost, to affirm the inviolability of
the international borders of Serbia and Montenegro also encompassing the
Province of Kosovo and Metohija.
The organization of Serb municipalities
and municipalities inside a Serb entity is therefore a
direct response to more than three years of intensive Albanian ethnic
cleansing before the international presence and under no circumstances
does it mean renouncing the integrity of the state which was again
strongly reaffirmed at today's meeting.
Mr. Steiner and the Albanian leaders are behaving as if Kosovo and
Metohija already was and independent state and the Serbs remaining in it
are acting from separatist positions. This is a cunning and false argument
which attempts to transfer the failure of the mission on the Serb people.
In fact, quite the reverse is true. It is not the Serbs
are not seeking to divide up the state but the Albanians, who are
insisting on forming an independent state on the territory of Serbia and
Montenegro. It is not the Serbs who are creating a monoethnic society and
institutions: they are merely asking for their legitimate individual and
collective rights as a constitutive people, while it is the Kosovo
Albanians who under international auspices have created the most
ethnically pure territory in the Balkans and deprived the other
communities of their rights. UN Resolution 1244 does not guarantee the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kosovo and Metohija as a state;
it guarantees this right to the state to which Kosovo and Metohija legally
belong, regardless of the fact that for more than three years this country
has been prevented from having any influence on the course of events in
this region and protecting its citizens who have been exposed to the most
brutal terror and discrimination while under international rule.
Finally, it is not the Kosovo Serbs who are isolating
themselves; they are only confirming the firm position that they wish to
remain an integral part of the Republic of Serbia,
where dozens of ethnic groups live in peace and tolerance, unlike the
international protectorate in Kosovo and Metohija, which is tailored for
only the Albanian people. It is the Kosovo Albanians who
are in fact isolating themselves by seeking to realize their Greater
Albanian ethnic aspirations at the expense of the state sovereignty of
both Serbia and Montenegro, and Macedonia against every single existing
provision of international law.
Thus the criticisms of Mr. Steiner directed at the Serb community
return like a boomerang to the UN mission itself,
which contrarily to UN Resolution 1244, international law and the Helsinki
Final Act is tolerating and enabling the creation of an
independent state of the territory of a state which is a member of the
United Nations with internationally recognized borders.
The sovereignty of Serbia and Montenegro in Kosovo and Metohija was temporarily
suspended due to excessive use
of force by the previous regime; however, it cannot be unilaterally and
completely abolished by either the will of Mr. Steiner or the will of the
Kosovo Albanians who comprise 17% of the population of Serbia and
Montenegro, in which the majority of the population opposes unilateral
secession and division of its state territory.
SERB NATIONAL COUNCIL OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
In Gracanica Monastery, on February 25, 2003
ERP KIM Info-Service is the official
Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
and works with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Artemije.
Our Information Service is distributing news on Kosovo related issues. The
main focus of the Info-Service is the life of the Serbian Orthodox Church
and the Serbian community in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija. ERP KIM
Info Service works in cooperation with
www.serbian-translation.com as well as the
Kosovo
Daily News (KDN) News List
Disclaimer:
The views expressed by the authors of newspaper articles or other texts
which are not official communiqués or news reports by the Diocese are
their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Serbian
Orthodox Church
If you received this message by
error or you don`t want to receive our e-mails anymore, please write to
us: erpkim@kosovo.net
Our Newsletters are available on
our ERP KIM Info-service Web-Page:
/erpkiminfo.html
Additional information on our Diocese
and the life of the Kosovo Serb Community may be found at:
http://www.kosovo.net
Copyright 2003, ERP KIM Info-Service
|
