Serbia's President Boris Tadic asked the UN
General Assembly on Tuesday to support his country's request for a legal review
of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, dpa reported.
Tadic said Serbia has renounced use of force to retain Kosovo, which it
still claims as its province.
A draft resolution asks the 192-nation assembly to support Belgrade's request
to the International Court of Justice at The Hague for an advisory opinion on
whether Kosovo's independence is legal.
Belgrade said it will abide by the court's decision. But the undertone is that
the ICJ would side with Belgrade that the declaration of independence violated
Serbia's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February and has been recognized by
more than 40 governments, including the United States and many European
nations. Albanian ethnics form the majority of Kosovo's population, with Serbs
and minorities constituting only 5 per cent.
Belgrade said countries that recognized Kosovo also violated its sovereignty,
and Serbia has called on countries that have recognized Kosovo to rescind their
decision.
"We believe that sending the Kosovo question to the ICJ would prevent this
crisis from serving as a deeply problematic precedent in any part of the globe
where secessionist ambitions are harboured," Tadic said.
"We also believe that an ICJ advisory opinion would provide politically
neutral, yet judicially authoritative guidance, to many countries still
deliberating on how to approach Kosovo's independence in line with
international law," he said.
While asking for UN support, Tadic warned that if the assembly was to vote
against the draft resolution, it would "in effect vote to deny the right
of any country, now or in the future, to seek judicial recourse through the UN
system."
He said a vote against Serbia would mean "the end of the UN system as we
know it."