While the United States and a number of European Union countries are expected to recognize Kosovo on Monday, Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry, reasoning that declaration of Independence can set "an unmanageable precedent in the conduct of international relations," said that Sri Lanka does not endorse the secession of Kosovo from Republic of Serbia. Questions raised by the birth of a new state towards demand for self-determination by similarly affected Tamils in Sri Lanka, may explain Sri Lanka's discomfiture towards Kosovo's independence more than the outwardly expressed "concern" for the threat to international peace and security, political observers in Colombo said.

"We note that the declaration of independence was made without the consent of the majority of the people of Serbia. The Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Kosovo could set an unmanageable precedent in the conduct of international relations, the established global order of sovereign States and could thus pose a grave threat to international peace and security," Sri Lanka's statement said according to media reports from Colombo.

UN Resolution 1244 on Kosovo
http://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2008/02/UN1244Kosovo.pdf

Vaddukkoaddai Resolution
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=74&artid=8861

LTTE Proposal: Interim Self Governing Authority
http://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2003/11/proposal.pdf

P-TOMS: Post Tsunami Agreement scuttled by SL courts
http://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2005/06/final_draft_of_jm.pdf

China, Russia and India are expected to oppose the Kosovo's independence.

Land-locked Kosovo, with a geographic area of 4200 sq.mile and population of 2m, will be the sixth state carved from the former Serbian-dominated Yugoslav federation since 1991, after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro, and is expected to be accepted as the 193rd state in the world's comity of nations.

Tacit acceptance of the viability of Kosovo with a smaller geographic area than Sri Lanka's NorthEast (7500 sq.miles), and smaller population than Tamils in Sri Lanka (4m), by approving members of the international community debunks the argument against the viability of Tamileelam, political observers in Colombo noted.

In contrast to Kosovo, Tamils demand for self-determination initiated by an alliance of Tamil political parties in Vaddukoaddai resolution in 1976, preceded the armed struggle by Liberation Tigers, and therefore, provides additional weight to Tamil demand.