Serbia Urges UN Council to Block Kosovo Secession

Tadic reiterated that Serbia saw the secession of the majority Albanian territory as a violation of international law.

If the U.N. Security Council does nothing to stop Kosovo from seceding, it will tell the world that no country's sovereignty and borders are safe, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Monday.

Speaking at a council meeting after the United States and major European Union powers recognized the former Serbian province as an independent state, Tadic reiterated that Serbia saw the secession of the majority Albanian territory as a violation of international law.

"If you cast a blind eye to this illegal act, who guarantees to you that parts of your countries will not declare independence in the same illegal way?" he told the council.

"Who can guarantee that a blind eye will not be cast to the violation of the charter of the United Nations, which guarantees the sovereignty and integrity of each state, when your country's turn comes up?"

Tadic received strong support from Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, who called Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday "a blatant breach of the norms and principles of international law."

Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya also expressed concern about Kosovo's move, saying it posed a "serious challenge to the fundamental principals of international law." Envoys from Vietnam and South Africa also expressed reservations about Kosovo's decision to secede.

Serbia and its ally Russia, a veto-wielding Security Council member, have been urging the council to intervene against Kosovo's independence. But Moscow and Belgrade have failed to move the council due to Western support for Kosovo.

Tadic told the 15-nation council that Belgrade would not use force to prevent Kosovo from going its own way.

"As a responsible member of the international community, committed to the peaceful settlement of disputes, the republic of Serbia will not use force," he said.

LEGACY OF MILOSEVIC

An emergency council session on Sunday called by Russia failed to bridge the differences Moscow has with Western states that maintain independence is the only viable option.

Monday's session made it clear the impasse remained.

Italian envoy Aldo Mantovani told Serbia and the council: "Kosovo's independence is a fact. It's time to move ahead."

Even though four months of talks between Pristina and Belgrade on the future status of Kosovo yielded no agreement by the time they ended in December 2007, both Russia and Serbia continue to demand a new round of negotiations.

The United States and most EU member states trace the need for independence back to late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's brutal suppression of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians, which led to a 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Serbia to compel it to stop killing and expelling Albanians.

"(Milosevic) had tried in 1999 to expel the majority population from Kosovo," British Ambassador John Sawers said. "People being herded onto trains provoked images from the 1940s. The events of 1999 shaped the events we see now."

Sawers said today's Belgrade was not responsible for Milosevic's actions but "must accept that the legacy of (his) oppression and violence has made it impossible for Kosovo to return to control by Belgrade."

Tadic dismissed this argument: "Today is February 2008, Slobodan Milosevic is there no more, and in 1999 when he was in power in Serbia, Kosovo was not granted independence."

Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since 1999, when NATO troops were deployed there after its bombing campaign. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council the U.N. mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, would remain there.