Council of Europe deplores violence in Kosovo

STRASBOURG, Feb. 13 – The Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting Tuesday in Paris, adopted a statement on Kosovo’s recent violent acts and the death of two protestors. “The Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) deplores the outburst of violence which accompanied demonstrations against the Ahtisaari plan in Pristina during the week-end. The intensity of the clashes between demonstrators and the police, which caused the deaths of two people and injuries to 80 more, is a reminder that the volatility of the province must not be underestimated. At this delicate stage of the process for defining a future status for Kosovo, both the international community and the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) should be more alert than ever to prevent tension from erupting into violence. As recently reaffirmed in Assembly Resolution 1533 (2007) on the current situation in Kosovo, the committee considers a negotiated solution to the issue of Kosovo’s status as the best guarantee of long-term peace, stability and prosperity in the Western Balkans. In this context, the committee hopes for a resumption of negotiations in Vienna taking into consideration the Ahtisaari plan within the shortest possible time-frame, and urges both the Serbian and the Kosovo Albanian negotiating teams to engage in a constructive and pragmatic dialogue with a view to concluding the process in a satisfactory manner.”