KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

New York, 28 September 2007

PRIME MINISTER OF SERBIA VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA SPEECH AT THE BEGINING OF THE DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN BELGRADE AND PRISTINA ON THE KOSOVO STATUS

Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with satisfaction that the Government of Serbia has noted support to and the launch of its initiative to open new negotiations on the future status of the province of Kosovo-Metohija, involving new international mediators, and, most importantly, to arrange direct talks between Serbia and Kosovo Albanian representatives.

We are adamant that only the talks and patient negotiations can lead us to a consensual, compromise-based, sustainable and durable solution for the future status of the Province. More specifically, we are offering to all the three parties involved – Serbia, the international community and the Albanian side – to clearly commit themselves today to supporting and accepting no solution other than the one reached by agreement through the negotiation process. It is equally important that each side should undertake the obligation not to resort to any unilateral solutions, which can only pave the way to the politics of force and legal violence.

You would agree that if we consented to this important principle today, it would be a great leap forward we would make together in identifying a fair and historic solution for the future order of the province of Kosovo-Metohija. On the other hand, so long as there is even a tacit possibility for one side, Albanians in this case, to opt for a unilateral solution, our chance of making a consensus will be nearly non-existent.

Today’s talks also provide a unique opportunity for us to agree that a solution for the future status of the Province can only be a democratic one. You will be aware that a democratic solution in its own right wards off threats and legal violence that may lead to a violation of Resolution 1244 and the UN Charter. Likewise, a democratic solution also makes it entirely impossible for an international military presence in Kosovo and Metohija to be used to facilitate the unilateral declaration of the Province’s independence. It was precisely in order to protect Resolution 1244 and the existing norms of international order that the international troops arrived in Kosovo.

In order to be able to direct the new negotiation process toward the quest for a democratic solution, it is only together that we must examine the crux of the problem at hand.

My assumption is that there is no one among us who would be prepared to challenge the fact that Serbia is an internationally recognized democratic state, a full member and one of the founders of the United Nations. It’s an equally well-known and indisputable fact that in a part of Serbia’s territory, namely, the Province of Kosovo-Metohija, representatives of the Albanian national minority are seeking to secede and create another Albanian state in the Balkans. For all of us here, the crucial question needs to be how to guarantee and arrange institutional rights of the Albanian national minority within the sovereign and internationally recognized state of Serbia.

If we genuinely decide to seek a democratic solution for the institutional rights the Albanian national minority will enjoy in the Province, a concerted common effort will quite surely produce such a solution. It goes without saying that we have to proceed from previous experiences in defining the status of national minorities in other democratic states. Serbia is willing to examine in truly good faith everything that the state should accept in order to reach a democratic settlement for the status of the Albanian national minority in the Province.

Serbia has already put forward to the UN Security Council a proposal on substantive autonomy for the Province of Kosovo-Metohija. The Contact Group, Kosovo Albanian representatives and, of course, the negotiating Troika, are also familiar with it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the opportunity for you to pinpoint specifically all the faults of the democratic settlement we have suggested for the status of the Albanian national minority in the Province. We keep an open ear for whatever needs to be changed, further developed or eliminated in order to arrive at a genuinely democratic settlement. The fact is that our proposal has so far never drawn a single specific objection or suggestion.

It would be most useful for us to hear a well-substantiated argument that there is a national minority in Europe or anywhere in the world enjoying the rights more extensive in any segment than those outlined for Albanians in the proposal granting substantive autonomy to Kosovo. We are also inviting the Albanian side and the Troika alike to quote to us any example of a fuller exercise of minority rights, and we remain ready to discuss it in specific terms right away. I can assure you that Serbia, in its commitment to reaching a democratic settlement, will immediately take a stance on any suggestion and, if necessary, promptly amend its substantive autonomy model, all the way up to the red line where its sovereignty and territorial integrity become threatened. No national minority has ever been entitled to create a state within a state, and neither can the Albanian national minority be given the liberty to do so in the state of Serbia.

In clear and unambiguous terms I wish to say that for Serbia it is impossible to imagine that the international community might give up a democratic solution in favor of unilateral steps and legal violence. Let us ask ourselves what abandoning the international law and resorting to violence against Serbia would mean for the world at large, the order we all live in and, eventually, the authority of the world organization and the future of the world? Indeed, is there any reason or any higher purpose which might prevent us all from reaching a democratic solution?

We have heard that one of the reasons could be a threat by Albanian terrorists to turn to mass violence unless there is independence for the Province. If for that reason we do give up the democratic solution and deliberately disregard the UN Charter, the UN member states are in for a humiliating capitulation before the terrorists’ threat, and, to be perfectly honest, a devastating recognition that terror has gained the upper hand over the international law and international order.

If we are to forsake law and justice and tear apart the sovereign state of Serbia only in order to implement Annex 11 of Ahtisaari’s plan, thus safeguarding the geo-strategic, military and security interests of certain powers, al of you, honorable ladies and gentlemen, must be aware that it would mean a collapse of the democratic order and lend the politics of force legitimate superiority over the law and the order that present-day world rests on.

Given that Serbia’s proposal on substantive autonomy has never been discussed jointly and seriously as a concrete democratic solution to the Kosovo Albanian issue in the Province, it would be very important if the negotiating Troika could provide for such a type of talks. More specifically, it would be best if we could examine the substantive autonomy model together and see exactly what it offers to the Albanian national minority.

So long as the Albanian side is openly unwilling to talk about a mutually acceptable democratic settlement, successful outcome will be impossible to reach. It is only logical to expect the international community to issue a clear warning that it will never recognize a unilaterally declared independence in order to motivate Kosovo Albanians to use the talks to really consider and discuss all areas of concern one by one. With such an approach, we would be able to find out together if the proposed substantive autonomy model denies them any right and, if so, how to rectify the situation in the best possible way.

It is the historical fact that the Province has never been organized upon clear and firm democratic fundamentals. Now is the right time for a concerted effort to do so, and to make sure that a democratically organized province becomes an integral part of Serbia’s constitutional democratic system. It is absolutely clear that Serbia does not want to restrict in any way the rights of the Albanian national minority in Kosovo-Metohija. Instead, it is Serbia’s long-term and natural goal to establish institutional guarantees for the exercise of Albanian minority rights in the form of the highest imaginable level of autonomy. The prosperity of the Albanian national minority and the prosperity of its southern province by all means constitute Serbia’s essential interest.

Hence the sincere endeavor to find a democratic solution that would guarantee a viable substantive autonomy and allow the Albanian national minority to develop freely and materialize its vital interests in the Province. Serbia wishes the Albanian national minority to enjoy its full freedom in Kosovo-Metohija and use substantive autonomy to govern its own future.

Nobody has the right to encourage Kosovo Albanians to think that Serbia offers little, and on those grounds to pledge support for independence. To tell the truth, what we are facing is not only an assault on Serbia’s territorial integrity and an attempt at its violent fragmentation, or an unscrupulous infringement of international law for that matter. If properly described, it is a sheer demonstration of the politics of force, based on the belief that such politics can turn national minorities into nations, provinces into states, and redraw the borders of internationally recognized independent states as its own interests require. To be realistic, those set to pursue such international lawlessness will be the last to take into account the genuine interests of the Albanian national minority in Kosovo-Metohija.

I call upon the Kosovo Albanians to work with us to identify a democratic solution and establish a full and viable autonomy where they will enjoy full freedom to exercise all their rights and run their lives. I urge the Kosovo Albanians to realize that no foreign state can be more concerned than Serbia itself to work to meet the genuine interests of its citizens and all the communities living in its territory. Only together can we arrive at a democratic settlement, recognizing the fundamental interests of the state of Serbia and the Albanian national minority alike, and, needless to say, respecting international law and, above all, Resolution 1244 and the UN Charter.

It is very important to note how dangerous it is to believe it possible to impose a solution on Serbia, or to assume that Serbia would ever recognize that there is an independent state of Kosovo on its territory. Can anyone imagine Serbia calling a referendum to amend its Constitution and the constitutional provision related to Kosovo, this being the only way for Serbia to recognize the existence of an Albanian state on its territory? In this context, it is important for anyone involved in defining the future status of the Province with due responsibility to take into account that any unilateral and imposed solution will prove impossible and unsustainable.

There is another matter of principle to be discussed. Let us ask ourselves if it is at all possible to come to a solution for the Province’s future order without the consent of Serbia as an internationally recognized state? Or, to put it more radically, can the borders of a sovereign state be redrawn without its consent, and a new independent state proclaimed on its own territory? It is of paramount importance that the international community, before anyone else, shows in no ambiguous terms that it honors Serbia’s sacred right to make decisions related to its own territory. Consequently, it is certain that the Albanian side, too, will have to recognize the inevitability that no solution is possible without Serbia’s consent.

There have also been repeated objections that Serbia allegedly knows precisely what it does not want, but has been rather vague as to what it does. If, for any reason, people in relevant international institutions are not familiar with Serbia’s proposals, they can no longer complain about it after today’s talks.

This is exactly why we can say that what Serbia guarantees to the Albanian national minority on its territory in the province of Kosovo-Metohija is the most privileged status enjoyed by any national minority anywhere in the world. The one single boundary to the substantive autonomy for the Kosovo Albanians to enjoy in exercising their rights has been drawn where the dismembering of Serbia might begin with the creation of a new state on its own territory.

In a word, Serbia knows exactly what it wants and what it does not want. It wants a prosperous Albanian national minority developing through a functional substantive autonomy. What it does not want, however, is what no state in the world can possibly allow – to let another state be created on its own territory. It is absolutely vital and more important than anything else that what Serbia wants, as well as what it doesn’t, is in full conformity with international law, the UN Charter, with historical practice, general moral values as well as with the universally recognized and adopted international standards.

I want to see today’s talks as a watershed moment, for international representatives in particular, allowing them to place the negotiation process resolutely and finally within the solid framework of international law. Many national minorities all over the world that already share the separatist aspirations of the Albanian national minority, or might cherish them some day, have their eyes riveted on the international community and its positioning in the talks, watching closely whether the international law in this particular case will be strictly adhered to. This is why we can all be sure that addressing the status of the Albanian national minority in Kosovo-Metohija will set a new benchmark for addressing the issues that separatism-minded minorities all over the globe may start to raise as early as tomorrow. For that reason, Kosovo can neither be nor remain an exception.

My country is making a strong call to identify a democratic solution and to abide fully and unreservedly by international law and Serbia’s constitutional order. It is only a solution resting on these tenets that can bring stability, peace and prosperity to Kosovo Albanians, the province of Kosovo-Metohija, to Serbia and the Balkans at large. Moreover, both the international community and the Albanian side can count on it that Serbia, while pressing for a democratic solution, will also defend consistently and resolutely its inalienable and guaranteed right to the inviolability of its internationally recognised borders, as well as another right - that its own sovereignty and territorial integrity be fully respected.

In equal measure, ladies and gentlemen, while advocating a democratic solution, we shall defend the honor of the nation, the dignity of our history, religion and culture that are inextricably and organically bound up with Kosovo-Metohija. For, is there an argument to justify a decision that the token monuments of the Serbian state and nation the Serbian people built eight centuries ago - the Church of the Pec Patriarchate and the Gracanica Monastery - will, as of 2007, no longer be in Serbia?

However little one may know about Serbia, the Serbian people and the Serbian history, one must be aware that nothing will ever change the decision reconfirmed by the people in the new Constitution of Serbia to keep the province of Kosovo-Metohija an integral and inalienable part of the state of Serbia as a substantive autonomy. Rest assured, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, that by acting contrary to the UN Charter or unilaterally, no one can ever deny these facts, violate the Constitution of Serbia and the will of its citizens. There is no state in the world to ever come to terms with such a humiliation, and it is only absurd to expect it from my country.