Yugoslav Government Disagrees With Draft Document On Kosovo

The document which fixes a legal framework for temporary self-government in Kosovo is unacceptable, since it does not give sufficient guarantees for preserving the multiethnic province and ensuring the rights of the ethnic minorities. At its Thursday meeting the government of Yugoslavia estimated in this way the draft document the working out of which by representatives of international organisations in Kosovo is nearing completion. The government called for continuing the work on the document and for taking into account in it the legitimate interests of the Serbs and of the people of other nationalities, with a view to bringing it in line with the provisions of resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council. As chairman of the Yugoslav committee on Kosovo and Metokhiya Momcilo Traikovic stated after the government's meeting, if the international community does not influence the contents of the above-said document in accordance with the resolution of the Security Council, the Serbs will be barred from all kinds of activity in the province, while the international community will create Albanian society which would mean a defeat of the UN mission. In this case it will be a document of Haekkerup and Albanians the contents of which will clearly give it to understand that the international community does not wish multiethnic society in Kosovo, Traikovic emphasized. In the opinion of member of the working group for working out a document on a legal framework of self-government in Kosovo from Yugoslavia Alexander Simic, there are all signs of the fact that the document will be called a provisional constitution, Kosovo will have a president and a full-fledged judicial system, and the Skupstina of the province will have the right to adopt laws. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its sovereignty and other functions in the province, guaranteed by resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, are not mentioned at all in the document, Simic said. As it was reported earlier, head of the UN civil mission in Kosovo Hans Haekkerup stated that the document in one or another variant will be approved before the end of this week.