Moscow concerned about Kosovo's failure to comply with resolution 1244 of UN Security Council

Moscow is still concerned about the failure to comply with Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council in Kosovo.

In his Wednesday statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said that local elections had been held in Kosovo (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) on October 26th. OSCE representatives say the elections were held in accordance with international standards, without serious violations.

According to the statement, the municipal elections continued the process of establishing interim local governing institutes in the region as Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council prescribes. At the same time, the document stresses "concerns over the failure to comply with other key clauses of the Resolution." It "was bound" to affect the attitude of various national communities to the participation in the elections.

Despite the election campaign of the UN mission in Kosovo and calls from Belgrade, the turnout of the Serb electorate proved to be extremely low. In Kosovo's Mitrovica Serbs didn't attend the polling stations. According to the document, such attitude towards the elections "testifies to Serbs' critical view of the foreign presence in Kosovo." The key issue here is to provide essential equal security and equality of ethnic rights, create necessary conditions for the return of non-Albanian Serbs and displaced persons, as well as to comply with other key aspects of the settlement on which the normalization of life in this Yugoslav province depends.

"The international community and its representatives in Kosovo backed by Belgrade and representatives of all the ethnic communities need to carry on their efforts aimed at establishing a true democratic multiethnic environment as a key precondition for the nation-wide involvement in the social and political life in the region," the document stresses.