New York, 21/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - Tuesday in New York, during a public meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Kosovo in the presence of Goran Svilanovic, Minister for Foreign Affairs from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the French Permanent Representative, while speaking on behalf of the European Union and the accession candidate countries, noted that the fight against violence should remain a priority for the new UN Secretary General's special representative in Kosovo, the Dane Hans Haekkerup (who replaces the Frenchman Bernard Kouchner as of next 15 January: Ed.). In Kosovo, said the French Ambassador, "men and women continue to be killed due to their ethnic group or for the moderate opinions they have expressed" and "extremist groups of Albanian origin have assassinated Serb policemen" in the Preshevo valley and "the maintain instability by harassing the forces of law and order in Southern Serbia". President Kostunica called on the people "not to fall in the trap of extremists that want to increase tensions", and the international community "must put all its weight in the balance for this message to be heard", asserted the French Permanent Representative to the UN. He welcomed, on behalf of the EU, the "Presidential declaration" over which the Security Council agreed and which forms, according to him, "a clear signal of the international engagement in the fight against violence and for the search for dialogue".
Recalling that, last 1 November, Mr Svilanovic had come to outline to the United Nations "the principals that found the action of the new Yugoslav authorities", the representative of the French Presidency noted "important steps" have been accomplished in Belgrade. "Even if, here or there, extremist nationalism remains present, democracy is now installed in the region", which brings out the intolerance, the violence and the ethnic hatred that remains" even ore clearly anachronistic", he underlined. "Even today, you have signed, on behalf of the FRY, the statute of Rome creating the International Criminal Tribunal, thus bearing witness to the long lasting engagement of the new Yugoslav authorities in favour of the respect for international humanitarian law and the fight against impunity", concluded the French ambassador. (The statute of the future Court has not yet been ratified by all the EU Member States: Ed).