The EULEX mission was originally sold to the Kosova negotiation team as part of the combined international presence conceived of in the Ahtisaari Plan to condition and supervise independence. In its desperation to win Belgrade’s approval for EULEX to operate in the north of Kosova and Serb majority areas, the EU has allowed the mission to become an end in itself.

Ban Ki-moon has just admitted sending a secret letter to Javier Solana, in which he repeats that EULEX must be status neutral. The EU has been quick to agree. The French Ambassador in Serbia, stated that, ‘this mission is under the UN umbrella and in the context of existing Resolution 1244’ and he added, ‘the mission also can be totally neutral towards status and this doesn’t represent any problem for us, because it can complete its mission of implementing the rule of law regardless of Kosova’s status.’ The mission sold as a supervisory mission in return for the recognition of independence, is now being imposed as a ruler, without even the pretence of recognizing status. To add insult to injury, we are being asked to accept the institutional and ethnic partition of our country, in order to allow another international mission to deny us democracy and sovereignty! To make the bitter pill taste a bit sweeter, today the US signed on as a participating member in the mission.

Your browser may not support display of this image.Every day, EULEX takes on more clearly the mantle of UNMIK. They share the same legal foundation of Resolution 1244. They share now the same position ‘status neutral’ which is being used as a polite cover to hide from Kosova that ‘neutrality’ means opposition to independence. They share the same staff now that delay has made EULEX recruitment more difficult. They have taken over UNMIK’s old offices, now that UNMIK have moved their headquarters to Fushe Kosove. They even share the same jeeps, albeit with a different symbol.

UNMIK and EULEX share one final similarity: Both are eager to recognize Serbia’s authority to make decisions about Kosova (in order to secure their own survival), but they are not ready to recognize the right of the people of Kosova to govern themselves.

In a decision revealing the fundamental lack of principle at the heart of UNMIK, the SRSG has argued that the case of 10th February 2007 cannot be reviewed by the Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP).

In the autumn of 2007, the families of the victims, Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini, who were killed in the demonstration of 10th February and those seriously injured, submitted a complaint to the HRAP. The HRAP was established by UNMIK regulation 2006/12 in March 2006, to deal with complaints of violations by UNMIK against citizens of Kosova, if other available avenues of justice had been tried. The Panel was finally formed 18 months after its legal establishment. In June, the Panel ruled that the case was admissible and sent it to the SRSG for his response. This response should have occurred within 20 days. Finally after three months, Lamberto Zannier’s legal office issued a decision rejecting the families claim. This rejection was based on the legal argument that the families had not tried all other legal avenues first – even though, UNMIK and the Romanian police unit responsible for killing Mon and Arben, are protected by immunity, as Robert Dean, the international prosecutor who investigated the case made clear. The lawyers for the families have argued against the rejection.

UNMIK’s own international prosecutor concluded that UNMIK police acted unlawfully by killing Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini in a peaceful demonstration for self-determination. Why then is UNMIK not ready to hold them accountable? If the HRAP is not able to consider this case, then why does it exist?

 

Albin Kurti leads Vetëvendosje (Self-determination) Movement, which opposes international administration of Kosovo. 

 

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