UN Security Council condemns violence in Kosovo

United Nations Security Council met this morning to hear the presidential statement denouncing the inter-ethnic violence in Kosovo, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. The 15-member body condemned the attacks on staff from the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the troops of the Kosovo international security force (KFOR) and called for preventing the escalation of violence in the future.

The Security Council called for the province's authorities to ensure that the rule of law is maintained, all ethnic communities feel properly secure and the perpetrators of crimes are brought to justice. The Council welcomed moves to strengthen the international security presence there.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he especially wanted to remind the leaders of the Kosovo Albanian community, the province's biggest ethnic group, of their responsibility to protect and promote the rights of all Kosovars, particularly its minorities.

The Russian representative stressed the need to stop the violence.