Serbian Minister Confronts Kosovo Ambassador at UN

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic sparked a row when he showed what he said was the birth certificate of Kosovo's ambassador to the US, Vlora Citaku, at a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday, and claimed that it proved that she was a citizen of Serbia.

"Vlora Citaku is still a citizen of the Republic of Serbia and is registered in the registry of births in the Pristina area under number 6194 for 1980. Ms. Chitaku could have asked for a release from citizenship, but she did not," Dacic was quoted by Blic newspaper as telling the Security Council.

Citaku hit back afterwards in a post on Facebook.

"For some unfathomable reason our Serbian colleagues thought it was a good idea to dig up a copy of my 'birth certificate' and present it before the UNSC [UN Security Council]. While I do appreciate their interest in Kosovo political figures, I must say it is borderline obsessive," she wrote.

She argued that Serbia had taken away many important documents when Belgrade's forces withdrew from Kosovo at the end of the war in 1999.

"Serbia stole civil registry, cadastral records, artefacts, etc. They have no shame and they don't hide it," she said.

The UN Security Council was hearing from representatives from Pristina, Belgrade and the UN's Kosovo mission UNMIK about the current situation in Kosovo when Dacic produced the document.

Germany and Russia's ambassadors to the UN also became involved in a tense discussion during the meeting, after Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzja said that "there is no room for optimism in Kosovo" and demanded the return of the former Yugoslav province to Belgrade's control.

German ambassador Christoph Heusgen responded by arguing that Kosovo is on the right path towards...