mali%20grb%20srbije
Republic of Serbia
?INISTRY FOR
KOSOVO-METOHIA
Press release:
Extracts from interview Minister Samardzic gave to Reuters
Belgrade, June 6, 2008 - Minister for Kosovo-Metohia Slobodan Saramrdžić
spoke to the Thomson Reuters news agency today. ?he topics were current
situation in Kosovo, the EULEX mission and reconfiguration of the UNMIK, the
UN role, the constitution of Serbian local bodies in Kosovo and Belgrade's
position on negotiations about final status of Kosovo.
Samardžić told Reuters that the proclamation of Kosovo's constitution does
not mean anything to Serbia, and that it considered it as illegal as the
Albanians' first efforts to proclaim a constitution in September 1990 and
their unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008.
"The date is in line with the transitional 120 days of the Ahtisaari plan,
which was never passed in the UN SC and is therefore not legally binding for
us. I am not saying that this will not be forced on us, as was the
unilateral declaration of independence. But after Sunday comes Monday and
the Serbs will continue to live their lives in Kosovo and Serbia will
continue its own policy in Kosovo," he said.
Samardzic said that Belgrade would implement its policy "in areas where
Serbs and non-Serbs loyal to Belgrade live".
"Just as UNMIK gradually transferred powers to the PISG, Belgrade took over
competences in several areas. It now seems that parallelism is going to
continue to exist," he said. "The fact is that these parallel institutions,
this functional division, only represent the facts on the ground," he said,
as Kosovo Serbs had made it clear that they refuse to live under Albanian
rule.
Local authorities that were elected in May 2008 by Kosovo Serbs, are
democratic representatives of the people there. They are legitimate and
loyal to Serbia, and Belgrade will continue to finance their activities.
Belgrade has so far been financing education, health and social welfare
system since June 1999.
'This goverenment has also invested significantly in economical development
of municipalities with Serbian majority, both as to business development and
as to the improvement of infrastructure,' Minister for Kosovo-Metohia said.
"In the next week, Serbs in Kosovo will be constituting local assemblies as
local institutions of governance, with legally elected representatives. This
institutions will be implementing the policy of Belgrade."
UNMIK reconfiguration
Samardžić said Serbia categorically opposes deployment of the European
Union's EULEX mission, as the purpose of that mission is to consolidate
Kosovo's independence, again something outlined in the failed Ahtisaari
plan.
Instead, Belgrade suggested a partnership pact with the United Nations
mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) that would effectively give it rights of
governance in Serb areas.
'This territory is temporarily under the UN mandate, as a UN ward, and to
change anzthing, Serbia has to have a say. And the policy of the western
countries is that completely opposite, it is one of nobody asking Serbia for
much. In this regard, Russia has been really consistent, as is that of
China, which is not so vocal, but is equally steadfast.
'The west counted on Serbia caving in on its principal position, and when it
did not happen, we now have a more or less frozen conflict, and this can
only be done regularly by negotiations.'
'Secretary General UN cannot succumb to outside pressure and cannot exert
such a huge change of mandate on a UN mission on his own. This can only be
done through the SC, and again, this is in line with Article 5 of the R1244
which states this explicitly'.
"We have identified the six areas that are key to Serbs' life and their
survival in Kosovo: policing, customs, justice, control of the
administrative line (between Serbia and Kosovo), transport and telecoms and
protection of Serbia's cultural-spiritual heritage," he said.
"Our proposal has been accepted, but then it was modiefied and now it has
become part of a package, offered by the U.N. Secretary General on the
reconfiguration of UNMIK," Samardzic said. "Let me repeat again, this is not
acceptable for us.''
But Serbia was not satisfied, he said. Serbia opposes of any reconfiguration
of UNMIK which would not be formulated within the SC UN, as an act, either
as a new resolution or as a annex to the existing one.
"If the EU were to form a new mission that would be a pillar of UNMIK in
Kosovo, as it has had so far in the economic development, we wouldn't have
anything against that. But EULEX has only one mandate, to implement the
Ahtttisaari plan and that is the independence of Kosovo. We cannot accept
such a mission even under the UN umbrella."
"We are not ready to discuss any reconfiguration There is too little time
to discuss our six points if the deadline is June 15," he said. Serbia's
policy was to negotiate for a solution, but not under artificial pressure.
Samardzic said Russia had been a consistent and principled ally so far, and
would support anything that Belgrade agreed to. Serbia was counting also on
the 150-odd countries that had not recognised Kosovo.
"What we have here is a more or less frozen conflict that will last long and
can be resolved only with negotiations," he said.
Future Negotiations
"We cannot change Albanians over night, nor we want to do so. They think
they should have independent country of Kosovo," Samaradzic said, "but we
have our laws, international as well as domestic laws on Kosovo.
Samardzic said that in all throught the initial negotiations on Kosovo's
future the Kosovo Albanians were so fixated on independence they turned down
anything less, such as Serbia's offer of maximum autonomy.
For now, Serbia was seeking an interim solution that would safeguard peace
and stability.
But in the future, when Albanians grow disillusioned and come to realise
that they had achieved very little, Serbia expectes the two sides to sit
down and negotiate a permanent settlement.
"International financial institutions still do not allow Kosovo to become a
member," Samardzic said, "whereas the solution we had offered would
guarantee both peace and autonomy, which would be better than the quasi
independence they have now."
Future Policy
Samardzic declined to speculate if Serbia's policy on Kosovo would remain
unchanged under a firmly pro-EU government, but said that although the "EU
is very important, EU integrations are very important for Serbia, Serbia
cannot sacrifice Kosovo for the sake of EU membership.
'We have to be able to trust our partner. If Kosovo is taken from Serbia
than the deal-breaker is not Serbia, but the EU, trumping on the agreement
but also on its own rules and European principles. Entering into close
relations with the EU at the moment when 20 member states have recognized
the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence - I can only interpret
this a indirect recognition of Kosovo', Samardzic concluded.
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Attached please find extracts from the interview the Serbian Minister for
Kosovo gave to the Thomson Reuters news agency today, in Serbian and
English. The integral version will shortly be available at the official web
site of the Ministry for Kosovo (em below).
Best regards,
___________________________________________________
Daniela Nikolić
Portparol
Spokesperson
Vlada Republike Srbije
Ministarstvo za Kosovo i Metohiju
Government of the Republic of Serbia
Ministry for Kosovo and Metohia
tel: +381 11 3617 603
mob: +381 64 8646 027
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