Celic: Resolution 1244 is Serbia's only legal asset regarding Kosovo territory

Dusko Celic, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Kosovska Mitrovica, says on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of Resolution 1244 that this document is "Serbia's only legal asset concerning the fate of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija."

This Resolution, he says, explicitly guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, now the Republic of Serbia, as its successor state, in several places.

"As a lawyer, I can express dissatisfaction with the fact that part of the international community, which we call the political West, ignores these provisions of Resolution 1244. Of course, Pristina does so as well, and it seems to me that Belgrade insists very little on the fact that Resolution 1244 guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Serbia. In these Brussels negotiations, this issue has been completely sidelined, the negotiation framework in Brussels is absolutely outside Resolution 1244, and unfortunately, as a result, we mostly have unilateral concessions from Belgrade at the expense of the Resolution and the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia," Celic states.

He adds that he believes that since this document is still in force, it is never too late to reaffirm its values.

"Not only because it is our only legal guarantee at this time, but also because young people died for that Resolution, giving their lives for the preservation of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia. Therefore, we have a moral duty to those who died, we have a moral duty to our ancestors, and certainly, we have a legal duty to defend international law concerning Resolution 1244," Celic emphasizes.