UN Secretary-General Insists that Granting Independence to Kosovo Will Not Create Precedent

The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes that granting Kosovo independence cannot be a precedent for separatist movements in other countries, including Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Ki-moon stated at a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York on 16 July, "I'd like to make it clear that this issue of Kosovo is a sui generis (unique) issue" that will not create any precedence for other situations such as for Georgia's Abkhazia republic or Azerbaijan's disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

At the end of last week the United States and its allies sent the UN Security Council the next 4th draft resolution on the future status of Kosovo which caused serious objections by Russia. [More]