The following joint statement was initiated by the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) and has been signed by the CPGB-ML amongst others.
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The signatories to this joint statement strongly condemn the latest pressure from the governments of the Quinte countries (the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy) on Belgrade to accept the so-called German-French ultimatum, which demands that Serbia should recognise the independence of the fake ‘state of Kosovo’.
No one in Serbia has the legal or moral right to recognise the ‘independence’ of Kosovo, even should the authorities in Belgrade not wish to oppose the request of the puppet separatist authorities in Pristina for membership in the United Nations, as called for in the German-French ultimatum. A government in Serbia that was prepared to accept the ‘independence of Kosovo’ in any form would be guilty of an act of high treason and would be rejected by the people.
There is no reasonable argument that could justify capitulation to the blind ultimatum of the imperialist governments in Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Brussels for the official surrender of the occupied southern Serbian province into the hands of the separatist puppet pro-imperialist government in Pristina.
Since 9 June 1999, the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija has been under the occupation of the military wing of western imperialism, Nato, and the Serbs living in that area have become second-class citizens.
On that day, the so-called ‘Kumanovo agreement’ was signed, initiating the Nato occupation of Kosovo and Metohija that followed the aggressive war of the western imperialist countries against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (24 March-10 June). In signing that agreement, the Yugoslav army was forced to leave the territory of Kosovo, and the Albanian terrorist pro-imperialist ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’ took power there, while Nato established Camp Bondsteel, the largest military base in the Balkans.
The aggression against the FR Yugoslavia, the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija, and the installation of the pro-imperialist separatist ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’ in power in Pristina were all carried out for the sake of the expansionist and plundering interests of western monopoly capital.
A large number of Serbs and other non-Albanians were forced to leave their homes and flee to Serbia, while the remaining Serb population in Kosovo was subjected to constant torture and harassment by the pro-imperialist authorities in Pristina.
Since 2013, under the auspices of the European Union, a series of meetings have been held in Brussels between the authorities in Belgrade and the separatist leadership in Pristina, at which the goal of the western imperialists has been to force Belgrade to accept the ‘independence’ of Kosovo.
In the meantime, the Serb population has been exposed to constant pressure from the pro-imperialist separatist authorities in Pristina. It is completely hypocritical but also naive to expect that any negotiations on peace and prosperity will be conducted under the auspices of the imperialist power of the European Union, which, along with the United States and Nato, is criminally culpable for the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija and its separation from Serbia.
We demand:
- That Washington, London, Brussels and other imperialist centres of power immediately stop putting pressure on Serbia to recognise the ‘independence’ of Kosovo. Kosovo and Metohija is an integral and indivisible whole, which, as its province, belongs to Serbia. Any change of borders is unacceptable and contrary to the interests of peace and prosperity.
- That the puppet pro-imperialist government in Kosovo immediately stop all pressure on the Serb population living in that territory, and allows all refugees to return if they wish!
- That the Serbian and Albanian people in Kosovo and Metohija should be allowed to live in peace and unity in the tradition of fraternal relations between Albanians and Serbs, who, in the second world war, fought side by side against the Nazi-fascist occupier!
- That the occupying Nato troops must immediately leave the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, and that the southern Serbian province should return to the motherland. Only in that way can Serbs and Albanians live in the territory in true peace and prosperity!
