Serbia Seeks Support
Against Kosovo
Serbia
has appealed to African states to back its efforts to block
diplomatic recognition of Kosovo independence, saying the
continent's own multi-ethnic countries could be threatened by
the move.
With a 90 per cent Albanian majority, Kosovo declared
independence from Serbia in 2008, but its government does not
control the north, inhabited mainly by Serbs who do not
recognise Pristina institutions and consider Serbia their home.
Serbian Foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, told the AU's annual
summit in Addis Ababa; ’’ I have to come to plead that you
maintain your principled reservation on the Kosovo issue.’’
Jeremic told the African leaders that independence for Kosovo
would be ‘a dangerous threat’ to a continent with so many rebel
groups and civil wars.
’’Imagine how many states of this great continent would be
affected by the legitimization of forcible partition...The
borders of every multiethnic state could be threatened,
producing instability in all corners of Africa,’’ Jeremic
said.
Serbia has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The
Hague to give an opinion on the legality of Kosovo's declaration
of independence, which has been recognised by 63 states.
About 10,000 NATO troops and 2,000 police, judges
and prosecutors from the EU remain in Kosovo to oversee the
Balkan country's fragile peace.
NAN/Yinka
