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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Negotiations on an independent Kosovo unacceptable for Serbia

Belgrade, 19 April 2005

Advisor to Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica for Kosovo-Metohija Misa Djurkovic stated for today’s issue of the Vecernje Novosti daily that negotiations on an independent Kosovo-Metohija are completely unacceptable and out of the question for Serbia.

Misa Djurkovic

Commenting that the Contact Group indirectly and the International Commission directly allowed for this possibility, Djurkovic underlined that whatever the international community decides to do, all efforts are being exerted to draw attention to the fact that this would be a terrible precedent, a violation of international law and the loss of a precious opportunity to end the centuries long conflict between Serbs and Albanians, and create a lasting compromise.

Regarding the change of rhetoric in international circles after the “first round” of talks between the Serbian state leadership and Contact Group representatives about future processes in Kosovo-Metohija, when the sequence “standards, then status” was changed to “standards and status”, he underlined that this represents an obvious admission that the international community did not achieve its set goals or standards in Kosovo-Metohija.

According to him, this was confirmed by Kofi Annan in his latest report, which said that none of the eight standards had been fulfilled. There is no freedom of movement and security, no protection of individual rights and rights of non-Albanian communities, which means that the province is not multiethnic, said the advisor to the Prime Minister. He added that, however, it is unrealistic to expect the international community to admit this, while on the other hand, the desire of certain powers to extricate themselves from what they initiated in 1999 and leave Kosovo-Metohija at any cost can be felt. Djurkovic noted that in the haste to slowly introduce the status issue, the visibly bad situation on the ground is being pushed aside, which is something that Serbia is most decidedly against.

Concerning the fact that there is no more talk of the “final status”, rather it has become the “future status” of Kosovo-Metohija, he explained that the “future status” was already introduced last year in Kai Eide’s report, which is also favoured by our side. Djurkovic said that this is a way to avoid the somewhat apocalyptic, final position while on the other hand the possibility of some further, future arrangement and the development of the situation is being left open, whatever the outcome of the current process. He pointed out that this is why it is so important to the Albanians to introduce the concept of a final, permanent status, making, according to them, the Kosovo-Metohija issue a closed matter. According to him though, the talks are just beginning and therefore this is a good sign.

Asked why members of the Contact Group have started to talk about “voluntary progress” in the implementation of standards, Djurkovic said that this is not just a change of rhetoric but rather an attempt to conceal the failure and to avoid admitting that most ethnic-Albanians do not want a multiethnic, democratic Kosovo-Metohija that would be open for cooperation, movement, trade, and co-existence but that they rather want to complete the process of ethnic cleansing.

He pointed out that the international community has failed to make them accept that and is now beginning to look for any kind of improvement, even a simulation of it, so as to justify its presence and legalise the opening of final status talks, even though it knows it would be premature. Leaving as soon as possible, even though aware that haste is not a virtue, may open a Pandora’s Box and destabilise the already fragile region for a long time, explained Djurkovic.

Asked what position Serbia should take in the event that Kosovo is declared independent, without our consent, Djurkovic said that Serbia is offering a solution in the form of expanded autonomy and joint efforts to resolve all social, economic, security, and other problems that Kosovo leadership is unable to resolve on its own. If, however, the international community turns a deaf ear to our arguments and opts for the rule of force, Djurkovic asserted that such a decision will never be accepted in Serbia, instead Serbia will always endeavour to regain its legitimate territories spelled out in the 1915 London treaty and Resolution 1244.