UNMIK/PR/1689
UNITED NATIONS – Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo (SRSG) Joachim Rücker today urged the UN Security Council to quickly draw up a roadmap for determining Kosovo’s status.
The SRSG told the 15-member Council in a closed session that the time had come to provide “a roadmap, a timetable, to assure Kosovo’s two million inhabitants of where they are headed.”
He said “UNMIK’s achievements as interim administration have been considerable. Out of a humanitarian crisis, an institutional breakdown, and a complete security vacuum in 1999, UNMIK has put in place very firmly, together with its international and local partners, the foundations for a functioning democracy, a functioning rule of law sector and a functioning market economy. The Standards for Kosovo policy has been a driving force in achieving concrete progress in these areas.”
Now, he said, “We have reached a critical point where further progress on the ground depends on ensuring clarity on Kosovo’s status.”
Rücker said “throughout the process, the people of Kosovo have been remarkably patient. But today – in mid 2007 – there is an undercurrent of anxiety throughout the population and among Kosovo’s political leaders. They fear that the status process is losing momentum and what had appeared to have been an imminent resolution of Kosovo status will unravel.”
The SRSG briefed the Council and answered Council members’ questions for about an hour.
“The people deserve clarity on status,” he told the members. “The people need clarity on status.”
