German administrator calls territorial integrity of Yugoslavia into question
BERLIN The German UNO Administrator of Kosovo, Michael Steiner, demanded that the EU should take overall control of Kosovo from the UN within a few years. In his lecture at the Berlin Humboldt University, Steiner implicitly advocated that Kosovo should be separated from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Steiner said that EU leadership was necessary in Kosovo because it would become an enclave within the EU, surrounded by Romania and Bulgaria in the next EU enlargement but one. The international legal status of Kosovo should be clarified more quickly, too. This should be achieved within the next three to four years.
Steiner said: ,,The next fundamental Kosovo resolution is called Resolution 1644 (...) and it will decide the question of Kosovo's status". This number 1644 is an allusion to UN Security COuncil Resolution No 1244 of 10 June 1999. This resolution affirmed the sovereignty and integrity of Yugoslavia, whilst giving a substantial measure of autonomy to Kosovo. Steiner has called the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia into question. Whilst he indicated that the future status of Kosovo was an open question, he clearly ruled out any return to the status existing before the war of 1999. Partition of the region was also excluded. Thus Steiner implicitly advocated the separation of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Source:
UNO Administrator Steiner: Clarifying the status of Kosovo in the next few years; Reuters 12/11/2002