Belgrade slams decision of Kosovo Serb MPs to join local parliament

ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY) 23-Jun-05 15:45

Kosovo, 23 June (AKI) - Designated Serb deputies were sharply criticised today over their intended return to the Kosovo parliament, which they have boycotted since last October's parliamentary elections. A Kosovo Serb leader, Oliver Ivanovic, said on Wednesday that ten designated deputies were now ready to take their posts in a 120-seat parliament, if the Serbian government approved the move. However leading political figures in Belgrade on Thursday criticised this move, saying the reasons for the boycott had not been resolved and that joining the parliament now would be harmful for Kosovo Serbs.

Even though they largely boycotted last October's parliamentary elections, the Kosovo Serbs have ten seats earmarked for them as an ethnic minority, and until now have refused to take up their places in parliament.

Prime minister Vojislav Kostunica urged the boycott because the international community has ignored his plan for municipal decentralisation, which would grant minority Serbs local self-rule, their own police and administration.

In addition, Kostunica has said that little has been done for the return of Serbs who have fled the province since 1999, and in guaranteeing safety of those who remained. Only 0.8 per cent of Kosovo Serbs went to the polls, voting for Ivanovic's Serbian List for Kosovo.

"Why should Belgrade give credibility to Oliver Ivanovic?" said Dusan Prorokovic, a senior official of Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia and the head of the Serbian parliament committee for Kosovo.

"If Belgrade wants Serbs to join Kosovo institutions, why not support someone else", he asked, alluding to the low election turnout. "It is clear that the 'Serbian list' has neither legitimacy nor credibility with 0.8 per cent of the votes," he said.

The head of the parliamentary group of president Boris Tadic's Democratic Party, Dusan Petrovic, said that it was important for Serbs to join Kosovo institutions to protect their rights, but added at least some of their original demands had to be fulfilled beforehand.

Other Serbian party leaders have agreed that there was nothing to justify Ivanovic's intentions to join Kosovo's parliament and that Serbian politicians should take a unified stand on the issue.

Slavisa Petkovic, who serves as the only Serb minister in Kosovo in prime minister Bajram Kosumi's government, said that Ivanovic was a "political dilettante" for not joining the parliament earlier.

Ethnic Albanians, who form a 1.7 million majority in Kosovo, demand independence, which Belgrade opposes, though it has no authority there since it withdrew in 1999 and the UN took over the administration of the province. (Vpr/Aki)