UNITED NATIONS, December 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday that Russia is indignant at the wave of anti-Serb actions in Kosovo after a disrupted football match between Serbia and Albania.
According to him, violence against Serbs, along with profanation of Orthodox monasteries in the region have become “a clear evidence of persisting ethnic strife in the Kosovo-Albanian society.”
“The wave of anti-Serb actions that swept Kosovo after the Serbia-Albania football match on October 14 causes indignation. Pristina has traditionally limited itself to formal condemnation of the ant-Serb rioting. Meanwhile, Serb houses in the region continue to burn, and those responsible have not been brought to justice,” the Russian diplomat told the UN Security Council meeting.
The Serbia-Albania European Championship qualifier was stopped after football fans started to hurl crackers on the field. A radio-controlled helicopter carrying the map of the “Great Albania” flew over the stadium. Serb team’s quarter-back Stefan Mitrovic tore the flag off the drone, causing outrage of the Albanian football players.
Kosovo Serbs interests should be counted
Russia believes that interests of Serbian and other non-Albanian communities in the unrecognized republic of Kosovo should be taken into account when forming new local authorities, Vitaly Churkin.
“A protracted political crisis is obvious, as it was provoked by the incapability of local elite created by the notorious Kosovo Liberation Army to come to agreement without foreign recommendations. We believe that views and approaches of Serbian and other non-Albanian communities in the unrecognized republic should be fully taken into account when shaping new authorities,” the diplomat said. The Russian ambassador called for “soonest creation of a community of Serbian Kosovo municipalities in line with the Brussels deals.”
For many years of efforts taken for Kosovo settlement the self-proclaimed republic “did not show any progress in its judicial system, counteraction to corruption, organized crime, including drug and human trafficking, restrictions on the freedom of speech and political impact on the court system.”