Last Minute Serbian Appeal to the UN Security Council

The foreign minister will ask the Security Council to do everything to prevent a unilateral declaration of independence, and Serbia's request is expected to receive support from a large number of Security Council member states, Tanjug has learned from the Foreign Minister's cabinet.

He will also warn that a declaration of independence without Serbia's consent will be a violation of international law, Resolution 1244 and the Constitution of Serbia, and would lead to instability throughout the region as a whole.

Earlier, Serbia's UN ambassador Pavle Jevremović had called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Kosovo, a move supported by Russia.

Jevremović asked the Security Council in a letter for an assessment of the “extremely dangerous situation in the Serbian province of Kosovo, where we are witnesses to the final preparations for a unilateral declaration of independence.”

He said that such an independence declaration would violate UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which had allowed the arrival of a UN administration and NATO troops in the province, while guaranteeing Serbia's territorial integrity.

Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin had said earlier that Serbia should call for a UN SC meeting and that Russia would support such a motion, given the “dangerous turn of events.”

The UN Security Council has agreed to hold an urgent
meeting on Thursday over expected Kosovo's unilateral proclamation of
independence as requested by Serbia and Russia, its president said
Wednesday.

    "The council agreed that the
meeting shall be held as a private debate and the Serbian foreign
minister will be invited to participate," said Panama's UN Ambassador
Ricardo Alberto Arias.

    The closed-door meeting will be held on Thursday afternoon, he added.

    In a letter sent to the council
president on Tuesday, Serbia urged it to consider the grave situation
in the Serbian province of Kosovo where a unilateral declaration of
independence was expected soon. Russia supported the Serbian request.

Russia will call an emergency UN Security Council meeting. It will scream. But it's backed the wrong horse. Europe is right to demonstrate it will not cave to Moscow's pressure. Ultimately, Serbia will want to move toward EU membership.

Kosovo is not Transdniestria or Abkhazia or South Ossetia. It is an anachronistic remnant of a now defunct country, Yugoslavia, a province that has been under UN administration for eight years pending a final settlement impossible within Serbia. Milosevic rolled the dice of genocidal nationalism and lost.