News | Serbian Unity Congress

November 20, 2007 on 2:02 am | In Kosovo & Metohija, News in English |

Leading Russian law-makers call attention the fact that Saturday’s elections in Kosovo did not take in the Kosovo Serbs, as 200 thousand of them are elsewhere as refugees and the rest turn their backs on separatist electoral exercises. According to the Lower House’s foreign affairs head Konstantin Kosachov, this makes the elections illegitimate and exposes them as a separatist ploy to bring forward independence in what is now a breakaway Serbian province. The biggest block of the vote went to the Democratic Party of the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army Hashim Thaci. Many accuse him of presiding over countless anti-Serb atrocities in 1998 and 99.

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Russian MP: International law is undermined in Kosovo

The international law is being undermined in Kosovo, a REGNUM correspondent is told by member of the Russian State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs Andrei Klimov said commenting on outcomes of the parliamentary elections in Kosovo.

“We must not damage the system of the international talks,” Klimov said. According to the MP, the fact of victory of the Democratic Party of Kosovo that was running for the parliament under slogans of Kosovo’s separation from Serbia does not let speaking about Kosovo separation from the unitary state. “This must be a decision of the whole state or of the UN Security Council,” Klimov said.

“The events in Kosovo are a precedent. There is a serious danger of opening the Pandora box,” the MP believes.

Klimov reminded that a similar situation takes place in Belgium, where no government has been formed: some of the politicians speak of autonomy of Flanders, and King of Belgium Albert II calls for unity trying to reconcile the Flemings and the Walloons.

The parliamentary elections in Kosovo took place last Saturday, on November 17. The Democratic Party of Kosovo won the race. With 90% of ballots counted, the party gained 34% of the votes, the Democratic League of Kosovo received 22% of the votes.

Related posts:

• Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo: An Abbreviated History, Richard Jansen (Colorado State University)
• Into the Bosnian Quagmire (Part 3), antiwar.com
• The Selective Prosecution of War Crimes: The Arrest of Radovan Karadzic, Counter Punch
• Divided rule, The Economist
• UN mission in Kosovo still waiting for instructions on power hand-over, Sofia Echo