DPA Monsters and Critics.com - 26 May 2010
Pristina/Belgrade – Serbia on Wednesday threatened to stop cooperating with the European Union’s law enforcement mission (Eulex) in Kosovo over the mission’s decision to ban unauthorised visits by Belgrade officials.
‘Our cooperation with Eulex is now brought into question,’ Serbia’s Kosovo minister, Goran Bogdanovic, said in a statement.
The latest row with Eulex erupted as Belgrade was trying to prepare a vote among Kosovo Serbs for ‘parallel’ structures of municipal authority in the northern Mitrovica enclave. The Serbs boycotted elections previously called by the authorities in Pristina.
Kosovo authorities and the Eulex warned Wednesday that they would not recognise the results of the local Serb-sponsored elections in northern Kosovo, scheduled for Sunday.
‘We consider the elections organised by the Kosovo authorities as the only legitimate ones,’ Julia Reuter, spokeswoman of the EU Special Representative Pieter Feith, told the German Press Agency dpa.
Additionally, Eulex has ordered border police to stop allowing officials from Belgrade into northern Kosovo unless their visits are authorised by Pristina, a spokeswoman said.
‘Unless properly authorised, a delegation will not be allowed to proceed,’ spokeswoman Karin Limdal told the Pristina daily Koha Ditore. The decision on unannounced visits by Serbian officials was made after consultations with Brussels and the EU, she added.
Kosovo, with a mostly ethnic Albanian population, declared independence in 2008, but Serbia refuses to recognise it and still regards the province as part of its heartland.
Eulex was deployed in Kosovo to help develop fledgling institutions in Kosovo and establish the rule of law. Serbia reluctantly agreed to the mission, but now warns that this may change.
Belgrade insists that Eulex has violated its declared neutrality with respect to Kosovo’s status and described the decision to ban officials from entering as a ‘provocation’ aimed at preventing the parallel elections.
‘Eulex obviously sided itself with Pristina … our patience has limits,’ Bogdanovic said.
So far 68 countries, including the United States and the majority of EU nations, have recognized Kosovo.
Serbia is fighting Kosovo’s independence in the United Nations with the help of its superpower ally Russia and has launched a petition against Kosovo’s secession at the International Court of Justice.
A non-binding ruling is expected this year.
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