UNMIK between the hammer and the anvil of the Security Council (RTS)
While Serbia expects the members of the UN Security Council to influence the repeal of the Law on Trepča, member countries that have recognized independence of Kosovo believe that the Council meetings on Kosovo should reduce, and they believe also that the scope of the UNMIK mission should be reduced. For representatives of the countries that do not recognize Kosovo, UNMIK has an important role, and the Resolution 1244 for them remains the only valid basic document for solving the problems in Kosovo.
When he assumed the office, the head of UNMIK expected a stronger mandate for the mission. Different positions have waited for him at the meeting of the UN Security Council.
The US ambassador to the UN says that UNMIK has fulfilled its mandate and believes that it is time to reduce the number of sessions about Kosovo.
"The future of Kosovo is not determined by the UN Security Council, but by the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina," said French Ambassador in the UN.
Such attitudes of individual ambassadors are just a continuation of Pristina's requests to reduce the volume of UNMIK. The Mission was established in 1999 by the Resolution 1244, and has the status neutral position. It has 362 members, 10 times less than at the start of the mission. Since then the mission has changed its tasks, and now takes care of the promotion of peace, stability and human rights.
"These requests are not a surprise, there will be more demands to remove this topic from the United Nations, because this world organization is the only place that preserves the main document which talks about the status, and this is the Resolution 1244," says director of Radio Belgrade and a long time reporter from Kosovo, Milivoje Mihajlović.
The views of UNMIK and discussion in the Security Council were divided by the line that separates those that recognized Kosovo and those who did not. Hence the different views on the situation in the province.