Kosovo Serb protesters reject Ahtisaari plan

BBC Monitoring International Reports - February 9, 2007 Friday

 

Text of report by Serbian TV satellite service on 9 February

 

[Presenter] At the largest protest rally held to date, more than 10,000 Serbs in Sumadija Square in northern Kosovska Mitrovica have completely rejected [UN envoy] Martti Ahtisaari's proposal on the final status of Kosovo-Metohija.

 

The international community and [ethnic] Albanians were told that the Serb people will never accept the formation of yet another Albanian state in the Balkans.

 

[Reporter Ljiljana Jankovic] Martti Ahtisaari's draft proposal on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija is unfavourable and absolutely unacceptable for the Serb people as what Serbs already have is being taken away, the president of the Association of Serb Municipalities and Communities in Kosovo-Metohija, Marko Jaksic, said. He recalled that for the first time in history of the United Nations there is an attempt to take by force part of a territory of a sovereign state, assessing that Ahtisaari's plan is in fact a US-Albanian one.

 

Jaksic called on Belgrade officials to display unity, sending the message that Kosovo-Metohija can never be independent until the Serbian state agrees with this.

 

The presidents of the northern Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] municipalities assessed that Ahtisaari's plan paves the way for the independence of the southern Serbian province and appealed for the speedy formation of the Serbian Assembly, government, as well as the negotiating team which will represent the state interests of Serbia.

 

A mass Serb protest has been announced for 27 February in front of the US embassy in Belgrade.

 

Source: RTS SAT TV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1400 gmt 9 Feb 07