Serbia plans backlash against West over Kosovo

Serbia is planning retaliatory measures against Western states if they recognise Kosovo’s independence, including the possibility of severing diplomatic ties with the US and EU countries.

Belgrade also said it rejected the idea of an EU mission in Kosovo until the breakaway province’s status was resolved.

Today, the parliament will debate a strongly-worded resolution proposed by the government that will bind Serbian officials never to accept Kosovo’s independence.

Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have pledged to proclaim independence early next year, and the US and several EU states have indicated they would recognise it. Serbia, backed by Russia, insists that Kosovo, a province of two million people that is 90% ethnic Albanian, should remain part of its territory.

The European Union agreed earlier this month to send an 1,800-member mission to Kosovo to replace the current system in the province, which has been run by the United Nations and Nato since the 1999 war between Serbs and separatist ethnic Albanians.

But the Serbian government resolution, which will almost certainly be adopted by the nationalist-dominated parliament, said that the EU mission would not be welcome before Kosovo’s final status was determined at the UN Security Council, where Russia could veto any decision not favourable to Belgrade.

“The sending of the proposed EU mission ... would be an act which jeopardises the sovereignty, territorial integrity and the constitution of the Republic of Serbia,” according to a copy of the draft resolution made available to The Associated Press.

Russia has opposed the new EU mission without Belgrade’s consent.

The document says that Serbia must “reconsider” diplomatic ties with Western countries that recognise Kosovo’s statehood. It adds that because of Nato’s alleged support for Kosovo’s independence, Serbia must remain outside the Western military alliance.

Foreign minister Vuk Jeremic said that the proposed resolution “represents the continuation of the government’s policies towards Kosovo”.

But Liberal Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic – a rare Serbian official who does not oppose Kosovo’s independence – said that the proposed resolution “represents the end of Serbia’s pro-European policies”.

“We will not support the resolution because it epitomises the return to the anti-Western isolationist policies of (former Serbian leader) Slobodan Milosevic,” Mr Jovanovic said, adding that a similar resolution was adopted by the assembly in 1999 on the eve of Nato’s bombing of Serbia to stop its crackdown again separatist Kosovo Albanians.

The proposed draft also said that Serbia must “act efficiently to protect the lives and property” of non-Albanians in Kosovo in case it proclaims independence. It did not specify whether this would include an armed intervention advocated by Serbia’s ultranationalists.

The resolution, apparently drafted by Serbia’s conservative prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, also said that the planned signing of a pre-membership trade and aid deal with the EU in January “must be in the function of preserving the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Kostunica’s ruling party has earlier demanded that the signing of the so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU be conditioned with the bloc agreeing that Kosovo is Serbia’s integral part.

But President Boris Tadic’s pro-Western Democrats managed to remove that part from the resolution, saying Serbia must remain committed to EU membership whatever Kosovo’s future status may turn out to be.