April 03, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

PRISTINA, April 2: The top European Union official in Kosovo approved the new country’s constitution on Wednesday.

Pieter Feith, who heads the EU-led civilian mission overseeing Kosovo authorities said the document guaranteed minority rights, including those of the restive Serb minority.

“Kosovo will have a modern Constitution guaranteeing full respect of individual and community rights, including those of Kosovo Serbs,” Feith said in a statement.

The constitution needs to be formally approved by the 120-seat assembly. It is expected to come into effect on June 15, when the local government is scheduled to take over authority from the UN mission that has been in charge since the end of the war in 1999.

The document had to be approved by the EU-led mission to make sure it was in line with the international deal that allowed Kosovo’s secession from Serbia.

An international settlement aimed at bridging differences between Kosovo and Serbia was drafted by former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari following yearlong negotiations between Kosovo’s leaders and Serbia last year.

It said Kosovo should be a state, but under international supervision, to ensure the protection of minority rights and respect for the rule of law.

Russia opposed the agreement and threatened to block it at the UN Security Council. But the United States and most countries in the European Union recognised Kosovo as a state and agreed to deploy some 2,000 policemen, judges and advisers to implement Ahtisaari’s proposal under EU leadership.

The UN administration was expected to withdraw from Kosovo. But, lacking Security Council approval of Kosovo’s independence, it will stay in Kosovo, although it is unclear what powers it will have.

The EU-led mission has veto power over decisions of the Kosovo authorities that affect the implementation of the Ahtisaari settlement.

Serbia rejects Kosovo’s independence and has vowed to regain sovereignty over it. Serb leaders have called for a boycott of the EU-led mission in areas of Kosovo where they live. Offices of the mission in Kosovo’s Serb-dominated north have come under attack, hindering the deployment of EU staff.

On March 17 Serb rioters protesting Kosovo’s independence clashed with international forces in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, killing one Ukrainian policeman.

United Nations staff were forced to evacuate before Nato peacekeepers took control of the city. —AP