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It
is necessary to provide a substantial autonomy within the Serb entity, as well
as the full protection of their rights in the entire Kosovo, outlines a part of
According to the platform, the Serbs need three kinds of
constitutional guarantees and legal protections to survive in the present
conditions in Kosovo. The constitutional and legal positions of the Serb
community in Kosovo must be defined in a way that will not grant the Albanian
majority any constitutional and legal grounds to treat the K-Serbs as a minority
to which they can impose solutions opposed to the K-Serb vital
interests. Serbs in Kosovo must enjoy all individual rights and
liberties that all states of the EU, SCG and The
Serb community in Kosovo must receive institutional guarantees and institutional
mechanisms needed to ensure its normal living and survival in the
province. In
the present conditions, the best way for introducing these guarantees and
mechanisms is through the process of decentralization, which should be aimed at
establishing a Serb entity in Kosovo. This entity would not in any way
compromise the territorial unity of the province, nor it would offer the basis
for its division. It would only be an institutional _expression_ of the Serb
autonomy in Kosovo, to which the Serbs have no less rights than the K-Albanians
to their autonomy within The
Serb entity would include the existing and newly formed multiethnic
municipalities, but with a clear Serb majority. The new municipalities of this
kind, which would be established through the process of decentralization of
power in Kosovo, are the important precondition for the return of a bigger
number of IDPs to the province. They should be established in northern
Mitrovica, i.e. in northern Kosovo, and also in central Kosovo, Kosovo
Pomoravlje and in Metohija. The present and newly formed municipalities with
Serb majority would not form a compact territory, but thanks to their functional
ties, they would offer an institutional framework for normal life and guaranteed
survival of the Serb community in the province. Besides, the most important
Orthodox sanctities in Kosovo would also be parts of the Serb entity, even if
not located in the territory of the Serb municipalities. This would certainly
include the Pec Patriarchate, the monastery of Visoki Decani, the MUNICIPAL POWERS In
order to carry out a genuine and an all-encompassing decentralization it is
necessary to grant bodies of the local self-government concrete powers and
authorizations that they do not have at this point. They above all include the
following ones: Full cultural autonomy (self-government in using
language, education, the media and cultural institutions; the protection of
religious and cultural monuments and the right to have special institutional
links with Healthcare and welfare autonomy (self-government in
healthcare; certain powers in areas of welfare and pension insurances; the right
to receive a material and professional (cadre) support from Financial and economic autonomy (financial autonomy of
municipalities; powers related to the municipal infrastructure; the right to
spatial planning; the right to conduct privatization within the municipal
borders). Local police and judiciary (corresponding powers of local
police; multiethnic composition of the local police equivalent to ethnic
composition of the population; the right of municipal assemblies to elect heads
of local police and judges of municipal courts, who should also receive
confirmation from the provincial
authorities). Such decentralization should also enable the establishing
of ties between municipalities in carrying out certain authorities of common
interest, i.e. the horizontal ties between municipalities, as well as the
establishing of bodies through which these ties would be maintained. In the
abovementioned spheres, as well as in some other areas, the municipalities of
the Serb entity would establish bodies and direct institutional ties with
RIGHTS &
LIBERTIES Serbs in Kosovo, especially the ones living outside
municipalities with Serb majority, are exposed to the well-known mechanisms of
discrimination and assimilation, which are violating their basic rights and
liberties. Therefore, they should be explicitly guaranteed a series of special
rights like the right to express their national identity; the right to use
Serbian language and alphabet (including, under certain conditions, the right to
its official use); the right to receive their education in Serbian language; the
right to maintain their own culture and traditions (including the right to use
their national symbols); the right to establish cooperation with their
compatriots both inside and outside the
province. GUARANTEES OF
INSTITUTIONS Full protection of the Serb rights requires institutional
guarantees on higher levels of authority, especially in the Kosovo Assembly. The
process of making decision in the Assembly that concern the vital interest of
Serb community, including the provincial laws, should envisage that no decision
should be valid if the majority of Serb AMs do not vote for it. In order to
ensure rule of law in Kosovo, special judicial mechanism should be envisaged
with the purpose to prevent violations of rights belonging to the Serb and other
non-Albanian communities. One of such measures should be to keep foreign judges
as full-fledged members of courts councils on all higher levels of the
provincial judicial authority (which was basically recommended by Eides
report). GUARANTEES The
territory and the definition of Serb entity along with all its rights and powers
would be a part of general agreement for settling the Kosovo issue, which should
not in any way compromise sovereignty and territorial integrity of |
