[ALBSA-Info] Russia attacks UN Kosovo head over self-rule plan

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Russia attacks UN Kosovo head over self-rule plan
  
MOSCOW, May 15 (Reuters) - Russia lambasted the U.N's governor of Kosovo on 
Tuesday, saying his plans for a quasi-constitution for the region before 
elections amounted to an appeasement of Albanian separatists. 

Hans Haekkerup, the head of the U.N. administration in Kosovo, unveiled on 
Monday a blueprint for self-governing institutions in the region ahead of 
elections to a provincial assembly set for November 17. 

"The document prepared by H. Haekkerup has a whole series of faults, which 
the Russian side has drawn attention to," Foreign Ministry spokesman 
Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement. 

The plan has already irked members of both the region's majority ethnic 
Albanians and its minority Serbs. 

Ethnic Albanians wanted Haekkerup's plans to include a referendum on the 
province's future status, while Serbs feared they amounted to giving 
independence to Kosovo, which legally remains part of Yugoslavia but is under 
U.N. control. 

Russia, which has 3,200 peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, sided with its 
traditional Serb ally on Tuesday. 

Russia's statement said Haekkerup should have given his plans to the U.N. 
Security Council for approval. Having failed to do so, he would face 
consequences in Kosovo and Macedonia, where ethnic Albanian rebels are also 
active, it said. 

Yakovenko said the plan contained no explicit commitment to preserving 
Serbia's territorial sovereignty and had ignored Belgrade's complaints on 
various issues, including the introduction of the posts of president and 
government chairman. 

"The legal framework for future self-government in the region is elevated 
almost to the level of a constitution," he said, warning this could lead to 
temporary-self rule bodies which could boost independence-minded forces. 

"Amid escalating provocation by Albanian terrorists from Kosovo territory, 
which has already led to serious destabilisation of the situation in 
Macedonia...Haekkerup and supporters of this decision must take special 
responsibility for future events in the Balkans," the statement said.