RUSSIA:Russia has warned that Irish troops deployed with the K-For force in Kosovo could be drawn into a legal quagmire if Kosovar Albanians declare independence from Serbia. It has also claimed that EU plans to send a police mission to an independent Kosovo without securing a new United Nations mandate would undermine international law.
"Establishment of an EU mission without proper legal basis would be a detrimental blow on the authority of the UN. And I don't think any serious government really wants that," Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, said in Brussels yesterday.
Any EU state that recognised Kosovar independence would also violate UN Security Council resolution 1244, which gave the UN administrative control of Kosovo, he added.
K-For troops are deployed in Kosovo under the 1999 UN resolution which the EU is also using to provide the necessary legal backing for a police and justice mission, which it intends to deploy in the breakaway Serbian province once it declares independence. This event is expected within days.
Russia, a key ally of Serbia, argues the resolution does not allow for the independence of Kosovo or for the EU to deploy a police mission to the region. But Nato and EU lawyers argue resolution 1244 provides the legal basis.
Mr Chizhov, who was head of Russia's relations with Ireland in the 1990s, also pointed to the specific legal difficulties that Ireland and some other EU states, which require a UN mandate to deploy troops abroad, would face if Kosovo declared independence. "You will have to pull out," he said, referring to the 280 Irish soldiers taking part in the 15,000-strong K-For force.
"My personal judgment would be that the moment K-For starts violating 1244, like hypothetically using force against Kosovar Serbs protesting against a unilateral declaration of independence, that would be the moment that K-For would be crossing the line," said Mr Chizhov. "K-For is mandated to implement 1244, not to undermine it."
Under the Irish triple-lock system, members of the Defence Forces cannot be deployed overseas without a UN mandate, Government and Dáil approval. But the Government insisted yesterday that Irish troops will be able to stay in Kosovo after independence.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern replied in answer to a Dáil question yesterday that the Attorney General had advised that 1244 would continue to provide the legal basis until it was rescinded by the UN Security Council.
He said Ireland also intends to contribute gardaí to the proposed police mission. "We also intend to contribute members of the Garda to the planned ESDP rule of law mission which was endorsed by the European Council last December," said Mr Ahern.
However, Labour spokesman on foreign affairs Michael D Higgins said he didn't agree that the UN mandate continued. "You clearly would have to take the troops home if independence is declared," he added.
Meanwhile, Serbia's nationalistic prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, has blocked the signing of an interim political agreement with the EU due to take place today in an effort to delay Kosovo's independence.