Finland Will Not Vote Against Serbia's Kosovo Resolution, Bolivian Silence and Italian Vacillation

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/icj2serbia092308.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- "If Kosovo was not quite perfect," Finnish President Tarja Halonen told Inner City Press on Tuesday at the UN, "then the Georgia situations, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, are much less perfect." Inner City Press had asked for Finland's position on Serbia's resolution to get the General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo's independence. After Ms. Halonen said "we support the court," Finland's foreign minister Alexander Stubb made clear what that means. "Finland will not vote against" the Serbian resolution, he said. "If the EU is to have a unified position, it can only be to abstain." Video here, from 21:32.

This principled stand is contrasted to that of France, which while holding the EU Presidency has said that Serbia's request causes "turbulence," and also of Italy. Inner City Press on September 23 asked Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini for his country's position. He said that while he "personally" would prefer to abstain, Italy will follow whatever the EU does. Video here.

Frattini gave the same answer on how Italy will vote if asked to suspect the International Criminal Court proceeding against Sudan's Al-Bashir. To some, this seems to be an argument for having only one veto-wielding seat on the Security Council for the European Union.

Inner City Press also asked embattled Bolivian president Evo Morales about his country's position on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the independence of which Nicaragua has recognized. Morales gave a long answer about throwing out the U.S. Ambassador, but did not answer on breakaway republics, perhaps for obvious reasons: he has breakaway provinces of his own.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/icj2serbia092308.html