Russia renews warning to EU over Kosovo
BRUSSELS, April 15 (Reuters) - Russia warned the European Union on Tuesday against any attempt to deploy its police and justice mission in areas of Kosovo populated by the Serb minority.
The Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, insisted the 27-nation bloc had no legal mandate to replace the United Nations civilian administration in Kosovo and said any such move would require the agreement of Serbia.
The EU decided in February to deploy the 2,200-strong EULEX mission to help build Kosovo's institutions, intended to replace the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), even though not all EU member states recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Russia used its U.N. Security Council veto to prevent any resolution legitimising the secession or the EU role in the breakaway Serbian province.
"At this point, we are warning the EU not to proceed with that mistaken course of action," Chizhov told a news conference.
"I would like to use this opportunity to send a public warning against any attempt to force EULEX into deployment across Kosovo or to re-establish those elements of the international presence that have had difficulty in northern Kosovo by force," he said.
The only way forward was through dialogue with the local Serb community and a new political negotiation between Belgrade and Pristina, Chizhov added.
UNMIK police and NATO troops used force last month to remove Serbian nationalist protesters who had occupied a U.N. court in the northern part of the divided city of Mitrovica, triggering riots in which a Ukrainian U.N. police officer was killed.
Chizhov said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had wisely declined all proposals for a handover from UNMIK to the EU and he had been advised to stick to that line when he visited Moscow this week.
Asked what Russia would do if the EU went ahead with deployment of EULEX across Kosovo, he said: "We will certainly use every possibility at the United Nations to attract the attention of the international community to any violation of resolution 1244 by whomever." (Reporting by Paul Taylor; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
