Serbia to Block Kosovo Independence ´Supervisor´

Vuk Jeremic fired off a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about the formation of the International Steering Group.

Serbia stepped up its fight Friday against Kosovo's secession, protesting against the creation of a 15-nation group to help "supervise" its independence as Kosovo Serb police deserted their posts.

As three more European nations recognised Kosovo's independence from Serbia, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic fired off a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about the formation of the International Steering Group.
The ISG's establishment "was made illegally, outside of the mandate of the United Nations Security Council" and was "completely unacceptable to Serbia", Jeremic told Ban, according to a ministry statement.

Kosovo's declaration of independence has triggered a global diplomatic split with Serbia and traditional Slavic ally Russia on one side, and Kosovo's backers including the United States and most European powers on the other.

The ISG, made up of countries which have either recognised Kosovo or indicated they will soon do so, was formed in Vienna on Thursday in accordance with UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan for Kosovo's "supervised independence."
Rejected by Serbia, the so-called Ahtisaari plan was blocked before it reached the Security Council by Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN body which had argued for a compromise solution to Kosovo's status.

The parliament of Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia with a breakaway ethnic Albanian majority of around 90 percent, unilaterally declared independence on February 17.
It has since been recognised by the United States and leading nations in the European Union, including Britain, France and Germany. Among those opposed are Cyprus, Romania and Spain.

The Ahtisaari plan envisaged the creation of the ISG and the deployment of a 2,000-strong EU police and justice mission -- dubbed EULEX -- to replace the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
In his letter, Jeremic said the ISG's creation "represents an obvious intention to avoid the UN Security Council and Resolution 1244, as well as to make senseless the role of UNMIK as the only fully legitimate body in Kosovo."
UN Security Council Resolution 1244 was adopted at the end of Kosovo's 1998-1999 war and put the disputed province under UN administration while retaining Serbian sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Kosovo Serb police abandoned their posts en masse Friday, demanding to be put under the command of the UN rather than that of a newly proclaimed state they do not recognise.
Serb officers serving in the southern Serb-populated enclave of Strpce joined those boycotting work in the central region of Gracanica, Kosovo Police Service (KPS) spokesman Veton Elshani said.
"They are requesting to be put under the command of UNMIK and not of the KPS as they have been so far," Elshani told AFP.
"These are exactly the same demands as the ones of Serb policemen in eastern Kosovo a few days ago" and hundreds more in northern Kosovo, he added.

In central Kosovo, almost 130 Serb police refused to show up for duty, following similar moves elsewhere in the Balkan territory since the independence declaration.
Earlier this week, Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilic said Belgrade was "planning to have our local police in Serbian towns of Kosovo," according to local reports.
That has raised fears in the international community that Belgrade was attempting to strengthen Serbian control of institutions in a bid to partition the tiny, mountainous territory.

Washington said overnight it was "absolutely" opposed to any moves to partition Kosovo, where some 40,000 Serbs live in the north close to Serbia proper.
The latest countries to recognise Kosovo on Friday were Iceland, Ireland and Finland, one of the 15 members of the International Steering Group.
The others are Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.