Report of the Serbian negotiating team for Kosovo and Metohija

Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade, Monday, September 11, 2006 19:06

 

Experience to date in negotiations on the future status of Kosovo and Metohija indicates that we should not ignore the possibility that very influential circles in the international community are also attempting to create an international legal precedent to the detriment of Serbia in the case of Kosovo but the Serbian side will decisively reject every policy of this sort, states the report of the state negotiating team.

 

The Government provided the report to the Serbian Assembly, where Premier Vojislav Kostunica and negotiating team members Slobodan Samardzic and Leon Kojen will be discussing it on Tuesday.

 

Serbian president Boris Tadic will also address the deputies.

 

The report warns that if there is an attempt to impose the independence of Kosovo upon Serbia, we should not completely exclude the possibility of the use of further means of pressure on our country towards that goal.

 

The report explains that issues such as responsibilities toward The Hague, Serbia's ascension to the European Union, the position of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina's court case against Serbia may be linked to the status of Kosovo in the near future in order to force Serbia to relent. Every policy of this sort will be decisively rejected by the Serbian side and will not succeed, the report emphasizes, adding that the only possible result of this approach is further destabilization of conditions in the region and that is why we should hope that no one will try to avail themselves of it instead of a rational policy seeking compromise.

 

The report emphasizes that Serbia has multiple interests in remaining engaged in the negotiating process, both in terms of what it can gain through negotiations as well as in terms of what it can lose by withdrawing from them. Within this context, the report assesses that statements by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari that the Serbs are "guilty as a people" and that they are "rattling their sabers" are incompatible with his role as negotiator and mediator, and that they have made negotiations already difficult and unsuccessful to date even harder.

 

Despite this, the negotiating team at this moment does not think that a formal request for his replacement should be made at the very end of Ahtisaari's one year mandate, the report states. The report says that the course of negotiations to date has yielded no tangible results. It explains that an agreement has not been achieved in Vienna on decentralization of administration in the province, the protection of Serbian religious and cultural heritage or issues of property and privatization, and even less so on future status itself.

 

However, the report underscores that it would be wrong to conclude as a result that the negotiations have been completely useless from the aspect of defending vital national and state interests. It stresses that the Serbian negotiating team from day one has been decisive in not accepting any solutions bringing into questions the fundamental values upon which the survival of the state, the people and the Church in Kosovo and Metohija rests.

 

The report also emphasizes that it is clear to everyone that Serbia will thoughtfully but very decisively defend the basic interests of the state, the people and the Church, and that the most Kosovo and Metohija can get and what is being offered them in negotiations in broad autonomy within a sovereign Serbia and its territorial integrity.

 

It reminds that the basic rights of our citizens, whether they are Serbs but also to a large extent in the case of other non-Albanians, are most brutally endangered since the establishment of international rule in 1999.

 

The negotiating team reminds in the report that ethnic cleansing of enormous extent has still not ended since two thirds of Kosovo and Metohija Serbs remain internally displaced in central Serbia to this day. The report also recalls the eruption of Albanian violence in March 2004. The negotiating team is therefore asking that the basic rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians be restored and that they are institutionally guaranteed through local self-administration.

 

With respect to the Church and the centuries-old existence of Orthodoxy in Kosovo and Metohija, it is essential for them to have full protection, including complete security and freedom of action on the part of the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as protection from violence and vandalism.

 

The report lists the chronological course of negotiations from February 24 to September 10 this year in Vienna and expresses support for their continuation on the basis of the Resolution on Kosovo adopted by the Assembly and on the basis of the previous platform of the negotiating team.

 

(Translated on September 13, 2006 by sib)