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Serbian President's Inaugural Vow: To Keep Kosovo

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By JOVANA GEC, The Associated Press

Published: February 16, 2008

BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's newly re-elected president Boris Tadic pledged at his inauguration Friday that he would never stop fighting against independence for Kosovo.

Kosovo's Albanian leadership is planning to unilaterally declare independence within days. But Serbia has vowed never to accept statehood for the breakaway province.

"I will never give up the fight for our Kosovo," Tadic said as he was formally sworn in for a new five-year term.

Although Kosovo is technically part of Serbia, the impoverished province of 2 million people has been administered by the United Nations since a brief war in 1999.

After a series of negotiations on the final status of the province failed to produce a compromise, ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the Kosovo's population, are planning to unilaterally proclaim independence in the next several days.

On Thursday, Serbia's government adopted a resolution declaring any unilateral act by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership to be invalid and illegal.

And Tadic said Friday the country would downgrade, but not break, diplomatic relations with any government that recognizes an independent Kosovo.

The rhetoric appeared to be designed to pressure foreign governments to deny recognition to an independent state.

Kosovo's declaration of independence is strongly supported by the United States and most members of the European Union.

But Serbia maintains it would constitute a violation of the U.N. Charter that calls for respect of territorial integrity of member states.

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