Subject: EU will reject call for Kosovo independence: Patten
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 9:20:16 PDT
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BELGRADE, Oct 24 (AFP) - The European Union will never back full
independence for the Yugoslav province of Kosovo as recommended by
independent experts in a report to the United Nations, a senior EU
commissioner said here Tuesday.
External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said the European
Union was bound to reject the findings of a 372-page report
presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan by an independent
commission on Monday.
"My answer is simple and direct: the position of the EU on
Kosovo is based on resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council,"
which urges "substantial autonomy" for the province within
Yugoslavia, Patten added.
"We won't move even an inch beyond the resolution, that's our
policy, and that will remain our policy in the future," he said
during a news conference.
South African judge Richard Goldstone, who chaired the 11-member
commission, had warned that after last year's Kosovo conflict it was
unrealistic to expect the province's ethnic Albanian majority to
accept Serbia's rule.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since NATO's
78-day bombing war against Yugoslavia ended in June 1999.
Patten held talks here Monday with Yugoslavia's new president,
Vojislav Kostunica, at the start of a two-day visit to Serbia and
Montenegro.
He was the first EU commissioner to visit Yugoslavia since
former leader Slobodan Milosevic was ousted by a mass uprising on
October 6.
Patten was due to meet later Tuesday with President Milo
Djukanovic of Montenegro, Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav
federation.