Macedonia declares cold war to Kosovo

Yugoslavian Foreign Ministry demanded to summon an extraordinary Security Council session, Belgrade and Skopje raised an objection against the decision. A resolution adopted by Kosovo Albanians lessens the value of the Yugoslavia – Macedonia boundary treaty. When the resolution was being voted for, Serbian deputies in Skupstine left the assembly hall in remonstrance. Serbs intend to completely boycott work of the parliament and regional government unless international community announces an adequate reaction to the initiative of Kosovo Albanians.

Yugoslav Foreign Ministry says, the decision made by Skupstine “calls into question authority of the Security Council and the UN.” The Ministry is sure, the intergovernmental treaty can not be ignored, as it had been signed by two independent states (Yugoslavia and Macedonia) and approved by the UN Security Council.

But Kosovo Albanians ventured to ignore the treaty. The parliament’s decision was the first among agreements to be soon passed by Skupstine for making Kosovo completely independent of Yugoslavia.

Macedonia Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski was more determined than Belgrade in his statements, when announced that Macedonia was “in a state of cold war” with Kosovo. The Macedonia Government is not going to establish contacts with leaders of the Kosovo Albanians and discuss boundary problems.

RIA Novosti informs, the Macedonia Foreign Ministry has got information saying that, as soon the Ohrid Treaty on Macedonian crisis settlement is fulfilled, Kosovo and Macedonia extremists plan to aggravate the situation. Then follows an agreement on revision of boundaries between Macedonia, Albania and Yugoslavia. Albanian extremists aim at creation of “Great Kosovo” or “Great Albania” and do not worry at all about at least minimum of diplomatic convention. By the way, Greece is also part of the territory belonging to the “Great Albania” project. It completely supports position of Skopje and Belgrade as concerning the Kosovo resolution.

At the same time, head of the UN mission in Kosovo Michael Steiner said, the resolution on boundary revision adopted by Skupstine was invalid.

EU special envoy to Macedonia Alen Leroi expressed his opinion on the boundary problem in an address to the OSCE standing committee. He said, decision passed by Skupstine may break “Macedonian peace” (it would be better to say, it breaks the recently outlined internal political stability in the republic). In the envoy’s words, “it is a delayed-action mine” installed by Kosovo Albanians that can be also treated “a declaration of war” to Macedonia.

A special treaty on boundary problem settlement was signed by Yugoslavia and Macedonia in February 2001 and came into effect in June of the same year after ratification by parliaments of both countries.

The resolution by Kosovo Skupstine, in its turn, contradicts the Helsinki Final Act signed in 1975 and UN Security Council’s resolution #1244 that says, Kosovo and Metohja are an integral part of the Union Republic of Yugoslavia. Albanian separatists assert that “four thousand hectares of land were taken away from Kosovo against the will of the civilian population.”

The UN Security Council and European Union warned the regional assembly several times already that deputies were not authorized to discuss boundary or internal security problems. It was also stated that head of the UN mission in Kosovo would interpose a veto on every decision passed in contradiction to the Constitution.

Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/05/24/41668.html