UN Chief: EULEX to be Neutral on Kosovo

Pristina _ The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon insists the EU’s new law-and-order mission to Kosovo, EULEX, is to take a neutral position regarding Kosovo’s independence.

In a document given to the 15 member states of the United Nations Security Council, Ban appears to end the weeks of difficult diplomatic debate between New York, Belgrade and Pristina on the controversial deployment of EULEX to Kosovo.

According to copies of the report obtained by Pristina media, it reads, “during EULEX’s deployment in Kosovo, its settlement shall be completed according to close consultations with all relevant actors, including the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.”

“EULEX is to operate under within the framework of UN’s neutrality.”

The extracts would appear to suggest that Ban is pushing ahead with his six-point plan for the deployment of EULEX.

However the plan, with its emphasis on the neutrality of EULEX towards Kosovo’s independence, will contravene Kosovo’s constitution.
 
Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February and has been recognised by most European Union member states, objects to the six-point plan being based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244. This resolution, passed at the end of the 1998-1999 conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, refers to Kosovo as Serbia’s southern province, not as an independent state.

Serbia insists that the EU cannot deploy a new civilian mission in Kosovo to replace the UN administration unless the mission is neutral in status and does not put into action the plan of former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari – which envisages internationally-supervised independence for Kosovo.

Belgrade also insists that the mission must be confirmed by the UN Security Council, in which it has a strong ally with veto power – Russia.

The proposal envisages the gradual replacement of the administrative UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, which has been in the province since 1999, with an EU civilian mission of police and court officials.
 
However Pristina has presented its own rival four-point plan which calls for the  deployment of EULEX, according to the plan stated in Kosovo’s independence declaration, the Kosovo constitution, and the plan of former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, envisaging internationally-supervised independence for Kosovo.

The debate at the UN Security Council on the deployment of EULEX is to take place on Wednesday.

EULEX intends to come into force in early December.