Petition against the independence of Kosovo is a reminder of violence against the law, and one must not pressure Serbian side only, former head of Czech diplomacy and UN General Assembly Chairman, Jan Kavan told Vecernje Novosti daily.

We have decided to sign a petition on Czech withdrawal of Kosovo recognition to once more point out an unacceptable precedent of unilaterally declared independence of the part of the Serbian territory, 10 years ago, he added.

This act along with recognitions of such independence by vast part of the international community created major problems in the functioning of the world’s legal order, and if this issue is not solved justly we would have new unresolved international disputes, Kavan further told Vecernje Novosti.

“This (petition) was an idea of the Social Democratic Party member Jaroslav Foldina and his Serbian friends and it received support of MPs from almost all Czech parties. I am not naïve to believe Czech Republic would withdraw recognition of Kosovo after this, but I am certain we will discuss about the precedent of the so-called Kosovo independence in our Assembly again.”

“With this petition we wanted to point out under what circumstances Czech Republic violated the international law,” Kavan said.

Since I know the international law, thanks to the studies in London and practice I had as a UN General Assembly Chairman, unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence in 2008 was a violation of the international law.

He also noted he supports entry of Serbia to the EU, but if someone sets condition that Serbia must recognize Kosovo in order to join the EU, then he sees it as an ultimatum, adding that blackmailing as a mean in politics must not be tolerated, Vecernje Novosti reported.

Kavan is supportive of the idea that both Belgrade and Pristina enter the EU at the same time, but after reaching agreement acceptable to both sides. Compromise means that both sides would lose something, but also gain something, Vecernje Novosti reported.