Security Council urges Kosovo assembly to resolve impasse over presidential election

Noting progress in implementing its 1999 resolution on Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council today called on the province’s elected representatives to resolve the current deadlock over the election of a president for the provisional self-governing institutions.

In a statement read out at an open meeting of the 15-member body by its current President, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, the Council also called for Kosovo’s representatives to allow those institutions to function in accordance with the Constitutional Framework and the outcome of the 17 November elections in which the province’s voters expressed their will.

Condemning any attempt to undermine the fundamental importance of the rule of law in Kosovo’s political development, the Council said it supported all efforts of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the international security force (KFOR) and the Kosovo Police Service to fight all kinds of crime, violence and extremism.

“[The Council] supports the measures taken to bring persons responsible for criminal acts to justice, regardless of ethnic or political background,” Ambassador Aguilar Zinser said, adding that it called on the province’s elected leaders to cooperate fully with UNMIK and KFOR “in promoting the rule of law and multi-ethnicity, security and freedom of movement for all.”

The Council also voiced its backing for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s new Special Representative in Kosovo, Michael Steiner, who tomorrow will assume the position as head of UNMIK, replacing Hans Haekkerup.