Friday, March 28, 2014

Russia "astonished" by Obama's version of Kosovo UDI.

Obama told a gathering in Brussels earlier this week that the ethnic Albanian proclamation, made in 2008, was preceded by "a referendum," and that this referendum was carried out "in cooperation with the UN and neighboring countries."
Obama's speech was meant to accuse Russia of distorting the facts related to Crimea when that country cited the Kosovo case as a precedent.

The UDI, made by the assembly of its southern province, was rejected by Serbia as unconstitutional, while Russia refused to recognize it. The United States, however, were among the first countries to recognize the territory as independent.


"Kosovo only left Serbia after a referendum was organized not outside the boundaries of international law, but in careful cooperation with the United Nations and with Kosovo’s neighbors. None of that even came close to happening in Crimea," the U.S. president said in his speech at Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

He also said that NATO's 1999 war against Serbia was launched "only after the people of Kosovo were systematically abused and killed for years."

“This claim on the part of the U.S. president causes astonishment since there was no plebiscite in Kosovo, all the more so a plebiscite coordinated with the international community,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said, and added:

“A decision of breaking away from Serbia was taken by 'parliament' in Priština in 2008. However, we can only agree that fateful decisions should be taken through referendums, the way it was done in Crimea, not in private."

Several western analysts and experts on the Balkans also reacted to Obama's statement, including James Ker-Lindsay of the London School of Economics, who qualified it as "an incredible mistake," and noted that "an unofficial" independence referendum had been organized by ethnic Albanians - but that it took place in 1991, and that only one country, Albania, recognized its results.

Cato Institute's Ted Galen Carpenter told Tanjug that Obama's statement was a regrettable attempt at distorting history, "especially given that the initial territorial amputation of Kosovo from Serbia was carried out in 199 by the U.S. and their NATO allies." This analyst also noted that this act was accompanied by "a shaky facade of international approval after the fact."

The orchestration of Kosovo's independence in 2008, Carpenter stressed, represented an arrogant instance of bypassing the UN Security Council, in violation of previous UN resolutions.

[b92.net]
28/3/14
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Related:
  • Комментарий Департамента информации и печати МИД России по поводу высказывания Президента США по Косово.

В Москве обратили внимание на то, что Президент США Б.Обама, оправдывая в своем выступлении в Брюсселе 26 марта провозглашённую в обход резолюции СБ ООН 1244 «независимость» края Косово и Метохия (Сербия), упомянул о каком-то «референдуме» по данному вопросу, якобы состоявшемся там по согласованию с ООН и соседними странами.
Это утверждение Президента США вызывает удивление, поскольку никакого плебисцита, тем более согласованного с международным сообществом, по вопросу о независимости Косово не проводилось. Решение об отделении от Сербии было принято т.н. «парламентом» в Приштине в 2008 году.
Вместе с тем согласны, что судьбоносные решения должны приниматься не келейно, а через референдум, как это было в Крыму.
[mid.ru]
28/3/14
 

1 comment :

  1. U.S. Embassy: Pristina declared independence legally...

    BELGRADE – The Kosovo parliament declared the independence of Kosovo from Serbia in a legitimate democratic process under UN administration, after all other options were exhausted, the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade said Friday in a comment on a recent statement by U.S. President Barack Obama that an independence referendum took place in Kosovo in 2008.

    Asked by Tanjug if they could comment on Obama’s recent statement that Kosovo broke away from Serbia only after a referendum was organized there in line with international law and in cooperation with the UN and its neighbors, the U.S. Embassy said:
    “The president was referring to the unique situation in Kosovo in which independence emerged from many years of exhaustive negotiations and engagement led by the international community.

    UN Security Council Resolution 1244 established a special legal regime for Kosovo under UN administration and provided for a political process for determining Kosovo’s future status, which included the possibility of independence.

    Unlike Crimea, in Kosovo there was a legitimate democratic process, under UN Administration, that included a free and fair vote to constitute a representative Kosovo parliament, which legally declared independence, after other options were exhausted.”................http://www.tanjug.rs/news/123405/u-s--embassy--pristina-declared-independence-legally.htm
    28/3/14

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