Ministers' Deputies
Notes on the Agenda
15 April 1998
Restricted
No. 98/375
Reference documents
- CM/Del/Dec(98)625/3.1
- GR-EDS(98)24
628/2.5
(A level, 15-16 April 1998)
CRISIS IN KOSOVO
Draft reply to Parliamentary Assembly
Recommendation 1360 (1998)
Item prepared by the GR-EDS
Action
The Deputies are invited, having heard Ambassador Tom Grönberg, Chairman of GR-EDS, to adopt a joint reply to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendations 1288 (1996) on Albanian asylum-seekers from Kosovo and 1360 (1998) on the crisis in Kosovo.
It is recalled that the Deputies, at their 625th meeting (31 March 1998, item 3.1), invited their Rapporteur Group for Democratic Stability (GR-EDS), meeting on 14 April 1998, to examine this Recommendation and to prepare a draft reply to it; and decided to resume consideration of this Recommendation at their present meeting, with a view to adopting a reply on the basis of proposals from their GR-EDS.
DRAFT DECISION
2.5
CRISIS IN KOSOVO
Draft reply to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1360 (1998)
(CM/Del/Dec(98)625/3.1, GR-EDS(98)24)
Decision
The Deputies adopted the following reply to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendations 1288 (1996) on Albanian asylum-seekers from Kosovo and 1360 (1998) on the crisis in Kosovo:
"In replying to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendations 1288 (1996) on Albanian asylum-seekers from Kosovo and 1360 (1998) on the crisis in Kosovo, the Committee of Ministers would like to bring the following information to the attention of the Assembly.
Since the outbreak of the crisis in Kosovo, the question has regularly been discussed by the Committee of Ministers and its Rapporteur Group for Democratic Stability (GR-EDS). At their 625th meeting (31 March 1998), the Ministers’ Deputies decided to bring Recommendation 1360 (1998) to the attention of their governments; Recommendation 1288 (1996) was brought to the attention of governments in February 1996.
On 11 March 1998 the Chairman of the Ministers’ Deputies, Ambassador J. Dohmes, Permanent Representative of Germany, in the name of the Committee of Ministers, firmly condemned the escalation of violence in Kosovo, both the blind use of force by the Yugoslav police and the terrorist acts by extremist elements. The Committee of Ministers called for an immediate end to all acts of violence and for human rights and fundamental freedoms to be respected in Kosovo without reserve. He also called for the parties in conflict to begin immediate dialogue, as only a political settlement to the crisis was possible.
While firmly backing initiatives taken by the international community, the Committee of Ministers gave its full support to the Parliamentary Assembly’s decision to send a high-level delegation led by its President.
Having received an application for Council of Europe membership from the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Ministers’ Deputies, after their 624th meeting, on 25 March 1998, issued a communiqué in which they noted the application, which they saw as "a signal implying a wish to respect the Organisation’s values – democracy, human rights, rule of law – throughout the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia… At the same time, the Committee noted that several aspects of the present situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in particular in Kosovo, were a cause for great concern".
The Committee of Ministers decided to inform the Assembly of the application and suggested including the question on the agenda for an exchange of views at the Joint Committee on 23 April 1998.
The question of Albanian refugees from Kosovo, as well as the question of Kosovo as such, will feature prominently in the future discussions.
As far as the invitation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe to study the feasibility of establishing a Local Democracy Embassy in Kosovo (in paragraph 1.iii of Recommendation 1288 (1996)) is concerned, this question could be considered in the present overall examination of the Local Democracy Embassies, present situation and possible development."