Samardzic: A compromise solution must be found

Serbian Press Agency SRNA, Bijeljina, 28-09-2005 09:10:30

Belgrade - Slobodan Samardzic, the advisor to the Serbian prime minister on Kosovo and Metohija, said that Belgrade's plan for Kosovo presumes that Serbs in the southern Serbian province will be able to stay and indicates the general consensus of Serbia that the province should be given a high degree of autonomy, including atypical status within the borders of Serbia.

During a guest appearance on Radio Television Serbia's program "Question Mark" together with Nexhmedin Spahiu, director of the television station in Kosovska Mitrovica and former advisor to former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, Samardzic said that the Belgrade government is ready to talk and that it has sent an official invitation to the Kosovo prime minister.

He reminded that the answer from Pristina arrived in the form of a statement and an attempt to represent such a meeting as a talk between two neighboring countries, which is unacceptable to Belgrade.

Spahiu assessed that the position of Serbs in Kosovo is not the best but that in his opinion, Belgrade media are even more influential in causing Serbs to fear living in the province.

He described the murders and woundings of Serbs in Kosovo as incidents, while Samardzic emphasized that these were instances of organized crime.

Samardzic said that a compromise solution must be found for Kosovo and Metohija, which would represent the first compromise between Serbs and Albanians in history.