Slobodan Samardzic, Minister for Kosovo said late Saturday that the EU mission to Kosovo is illegal, with no legal framework present for it to replace UNMIK.

Samardzic said, “There is no legal basis for UNMIK replacement with anything or anyone, and the EU mission is illegal. For this reason, the UN have a huge problem, as their mission would fail, and that would lead to a very difficult situation, not only for this UN mission, but for the idea and practice of peace missions all over the world, which would bring the legitimacy of the UN under question mark.”

Samardzic said that there was a group of countries gathered around NATO that was attempting to introduce and impose their own, new rules, different than those valid since 1945 within the UN. The Kosovo minister identified UNMIK’s chiefs, Joachim Ruecker and Larry Rossin, as representatives of such policies.

Commenting on ISG, Samardzic said, “It is legally non-existent, therefore unable to make any important decisions about the Serbian province.”

Since it is one of the powers remaining with UNMIK, Samardzic said that talks were now going on with Ruecker only about the local ballot in the province. He said, “Ruecker made a mistake last summer when he acted according to the Ahtisaari plan to strip UNMIK of rights to organize elections.”

Samardzic said he told Ruecker that if UNMIK wanted to do something about the elections now, he would first have to pass a decree annulling his previous decisions.

“Only Serbia and Serbian institutions can conduct these elections. Ruecker is not denying that the Serbs ought to have their democratically elected institutions, and if that is so, then Serbia is the only one that can do this, and we are preparing to do it,” said Samardzic.
Samardzic also said that it would be best if Ruecker took a politically neutral position on the May 11 ballot, “just as he did with the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence that violated UN Resolution 1244″.