Serbs demand that international envoy for Kosovo be appointed

BBC Monitoring, August 08, 2006

 

Excerpt from report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA

 

Kosovska Mitrovica, 6 August: Leaders of Serbs in northern Kosovo and representatives of the institutions in those municipalities in the area in which Serbs are in the majority have sent a petition to the UN Security Council to appoint a special UN representative for Kosovo-Metohija as soon as possible.

 

"We are asking that a prominent diplomat be appointed UN special envoy for Kosovo, a man who does not belong to world power centres, a man ready to implement [UN Security Council] Resolution 1244, a person who will approach standards and living conditions of all the citizens of Kosovo-Metohija in the same way," Zvecan Mayor Dragisa Milovic told SRNA.

 

He said that [deputy head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK] Steven Schook could no longer occupy the post of first man of the UN mission because of what he was doing, and especially because of what he was advocating [a protectorate being set up in the north].

 

[Passage omitted: more on previously covered details]

 

Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1016 gmt 6 Aug 06