Dje më 17 pril 2007, Burns tha se amerika do të aprovoj një rezolutë e cila mënjanon pengesat 1244-shit për pavarsinë e Kosovës.
Dy paragrafet thelbësore janë këto:
In the weeks following the visit to the region, the United States plans to co-sponsor a resolution that would replace U.N. Resolution 1244, which currently governs Kosovo, Burns said. “This resolution will not actually confer independence on Kosovo,” Burns said, adding that the United States does not believe the United Nations has the right under international law to create an independent state.
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“Once the resolution is passed, we would think that … the Kosovar leaders would declare their own independence,” Burns said. “And then the United States and other countries would recognize that independence.”
Ja teksti origjinal i marrë nga http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/di...rC7.734317e-02
U.S. To Co-Sponsor Kosovo Resolution in U.N. Security Council
Independence best option for Kosovo, State Department’s Burns says
By Vince Crawley
USINFO Staff Writer
Washington –- Following an April 23-24 visit by the U.N. Security Council to Brussels, Belgium; Belgrade, Serbia; and Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, the United States plans to co-sponsor a U.N. resolution that would allow Kosovo’s provisional government to declare independence, U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns says.
“We must now act quickly in the next weeks and months to finish the job by helping to lead Kosovo to independence,” Burns said April 17 in testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Burns is under secretary of state for political affairs, the third-ranking official at the State Department.
Following 18 months of negotiations, U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari on April 3 formally proposed to the Security Council that Kosovo be granted independence while temporarily remaining under international supervision. (See related article.)
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, is administered by the United Nations under U.N. Resolution 1244, passed in June 1999 when a NATO campaign drove Yugoslav Serbs out of Kosovo, halting years of violence and human rights abuses.
Under the Ahtisaari plan, “Kosovo will become independent but will continue a period of international tutelage for a number of years,” Burns told lawmakers. “NATO, for example, will continue to police Kosovo’s borders and maintain internal peace until Kosovo is ready to form its own armed forces. The European Union will lead the major international civilian effort to ensure that the settlement of the Ahtisaari plan is fully implemented.”
Several lawmakers expressed concerns that granting independence to Kosovo would set a dangerous precedent for other breakaway regions. Independence is strongly opposed by Serbia and by Kosovo Serbs. Russia, which holds veto power on the Security Council, has expressed concerns.
“A solution that’s imposed from the outside, unless the parties both agree, is going to lead to a real military problem, in my opinion, down the road,” Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat, warned Burns.
Burns stressed that the United States and its European allies consider Kosovo’s history of oppression under now-deceased Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to be a unique situation that does not set a precedent for other separatist movements. (See related article.)
Burns also said Ahtisaari spent 18 months trying to achieve a compromise, but the government in Belgrade “made a political decision not to participate” meaningfully in the negotiation. Belgrade also pressured Kosovo Serbs to stay away from negotiations, he said.
The U.N. Security Council has five permanent members and 10 elected members. A Security Council decision requires approval by nine of the 15 members. However, the five permanent members -– China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -– can veto a decision. U.S. and European diplomatic efforts in the weeks ahead are focused on persuading Russia not to veto a Kosovo resolution.
The current 10 elected members of the Security Council are Belgium, the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, Panama, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia and South Africa.
At the suggestion of Russia, all 15 ambassadors on the Security Council plan to visit Belgrade and Pristina, as well as Brussels, during the week of April 23.
“We felt it would be to the advantage of those countries to be able to meet the Serb leadership in Belgrade and the Albanian and Serb leadership in Pristina,” Burns said. Security Council ambassadors also will meet in Brussels with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana of Spain.
In the weeks following the visit to the region, the United States plans to co-sponsor a resolution that would replace U.N. Resolution 1244, which currently governs Kosovo, Burns said. “This resolution will not actually confer independence on Kosovo,” Burns said, adding that the United States does not believe the United Nations has the right under international law to create an independent state.
Instead, the proposed resolution “will remove political and legal impediments to independence,” Burns said. The proposed resolution also would mandate continued international supervision by the European Union and NATO.
“Once the resolution is passed, we would think that … the Kosovar leaders would declare their own independence,” Burns said. “And then the United States and other countries would recognize that independence.”
The U.S. goal, Burns said, “is to bring the Kosovo status process to a timely and successful conclusion by the end of this spring.”
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California, said the Kosovo proposal appears to have been “shaped with wisdom and patience” by Ahtisaari.
“Clearly, this is not a perfect solution,” Lantos said. “I would have preferred something different. But there is no better settlement in sight. There is no more time to wait.”
Transcripts of statements at the hearing by Lantos and Burns are available on the House Foreign Affairs Committee Web site.
For more information on U.S. policies in the region, see Southeast Europe.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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