UN envoy says Kosovo Assembly's resolution 'divisive'

The provisional local authorities in Kosovo were today excluded from United Nations delegations to three forthcoming international meetings after the provincial assembly passed a resolution that the top UN official there called "divisive" and against the spirit of avoiding a return to Kosovo's violent past.

The head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, Michael Steiner, said the resolution raised questions as to whether local leaders had learned the lessons of the past conflict, when the international community intervened because of widespread rights violations, particularly the denial of rights of the majority community.

"We are fully aware that repression in Kosovo gave rise to its people's struggle for justice," Mr. Steiner said in a statement today. "It is, however, equally critical to recognize that Kosovo's future peace and prosperity depends on upholding the principle that was trampled on during the 1990's, that is, respect for the rights and interests of all Kosovo's communities."

He said the resolution, which reaffirms the determination for an independent state and calls for the government to regulate the "status of the fighter for the freedom and independence of Kosovo," was divisive and ran counter to the reconciliatory spirit enshrined in UN resolutions and the constitutional framework.

The international community expected the Assembly to act in a manner "that builds into the future and does not drag Kosovo into the past," he added.

The three meetings are the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Council on 21 May in Brussels, the Stability Pact Parliamentary Conference from 21 to 22 May in Brussels, and the Stability Pact Regional Conference of the European Union (EU), NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ohrid, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia from 22 to 23 May.

Mr. Steiner said he had spoken to the hosts of all three meetings who "under these circumstances no longer consider it appropriate that the Provisional Institutions (President, Assembly and the Government respectively) are represented in the UNMIK delegations."