UN secretary-general says new plan on Kosovo aims to prevent conflicts in region

22/06/2008

NEW YORK, United States -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday (June 20th) that his proposal on Kosovo would prevent new regional conflicts. At a session of the UN Security Council dedicated to the situation in the former Serbian province, Ban said that after the recent enforcement of Kosovo's Constitution and a series of other events, UNMIK is no longer capable of effectively fulfilling most of its tasks in the region. The UN is expected to hand over part of its functions to Kosovo authorities and another part to the EU mission, EULEX. It was supposed to assume the duties a week ago, but ran into opposition from Russia and some other members of the UN Security Council. Serbian President Boris Tadic, who attended Friday's session, told Security Council members that Belgrade opposes Ban's plan and would never recognise Kosovo's independence. (Makfax, ITAR-TASS, AP, Xinhua - 20/06/08)