Serbia warns Kosovo independence will not be recognised

Serbia’s government today warned that any unilateral act by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership to declare independence would be invalid and illegal.

The government adopted the resolution with Kosovo expected to declare independence within days.

“Such a (move) would represent a flagrant and unilateral act of secession of a part of the territory of the Republic of Serbia, and is therefore invalid and void,” the government said in a statement.

The government also demanded that the UN Security Council “immediately annul” Kosovo’s independence declaration. The Security Council is meeting at Serbia’s request to discuss Kosovo.

Serbia wants to keep hold of Kosovo, considered the cradle of its medieval statehood and religion, although it has had no control over the province since a 1999 Nato campaign ended a crackdown against ethnic Albanian rebels and forced Belgrade to pull out.

The US and most EU nations support statehood for the UN-run province, where 90% of the population of two million is ethnic Albanian. However, traditional Serbian ally Russia opposes statehood for Kosovo.

Serbia already has endorsed a secret “Action Plan” to be implemented if the province declares independence.

This is believed to include retaliatory steps to encourage Kosovo’s 100,000-strong Serb minority, concentrated mostly in the north of the province, to formally keep their territories under Serbian control – a de facto partitioning of the province.

All Serbs living in Kosovo remain “citizens of Serbia and have the full right not to recognise any illegal declarations of unilateral independence” by Kosovo’s Albanians, the resolution said.