Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Decentralisation equally good for Serbs and ethnic-Albanians

Belgrade, 24 September 2005

Head of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic spoke to daily Danas about the future activities of the Coordinating Centre, dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and the state’s handling of the Kosovo-Metohija problem.

The Serbian government’s official website brings excerpts from this interview, conducted ahead of her first visit to Serbia’s southern province since she took the new office.

Programme of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija:

On the level of high politics, that is the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, the Coordinating Centre, in accordance with the programme of the state leadership, advocates the “more than autonomy – less than independence” model. This means that the ethnic-Albanian side gets the executive, legislative, and judicial powers. Serbia, in line with Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, retains state and territorial sovereignty, which means that Kosovo remains part of Serbia. Serbian police will guard the borders, the fiscal and customs policies will be on the state level, tied to the central government. There will be only one defence minister, one foreign affairs minister, one seat at the UN, with our advocating for Kosovo-Metohija to become a demilitarised zone so as to prevent the creation of paramilitary units in the province. The Serb and other non-Albanian communities will get decentralisation, which restores certain aspects of the functioning of society, the state, and the province to the local level. These include education, health, social policies, religion, the preservation of cultural heritage, judiciary, and police. This solution is equally good for Serbs and ethnic Albanians given that the strengthening of local self-government is a European and global trend. Americans too elect their local sheriffs. Aside from decentralisation, I intend to deal with everyday life, the survival of some 140,000 people who remained to live in different geographic region of Kosovo-Metohija, as well as the problems facing internally displaced persons.

What does the Belgrade “formula” involve?

The ethnic-Albanian side saw what it is through one of my public statements but they did not agree with it. None of the ambassadors from the international community to whom I explained this formula, including Maurizio Massari and Kai Eide, has said that it does not make sense or that it is unfair to the ethnic Albanians. Some even said that it represents a good starting point because it actually represents the middle ground between two radical options – the independence of Kosovo and centralism.

Does official Belgrade treat ethnic Albanians as its own citizens?

Ethnic Albanians certainly are our citizens. None of them has Serbia-Montenegrin documents but UNMIK’s, but when they need to travel abroad, some 50,000 ethnic Albanians took our passports. Of course there are also other possibilities for cooperation through health, social work…As a state, we will certainly be faced with the fact that we will have 30 percent of ethnic Albanians in the state union’s parliament but, in my opinion, we are ready to deal with it.

On the Kosovo government’s Plan B for decentralisation:

Plan B has been rejected. It is totally unacceptable to us and we will not discuss it at all. We are in favour of a comprehensive decentralisation, which allows for the creation of Serb municipalities and the implementation of decentralisation everywhere. There is no need for decentralisation to be carried out in five municipalities as some pilot-project when we believe that comprehensive decentralisation is equally good for Serbs and ethnic Albanians as well as the entire country.

Is Belgrade more inclined to the north of the province then to the enclaves, most of all financially?

When it comes to financial investment, I really cannot say that, but the truth is that the North is relatively stable and that it has preserved some institutions that have enabled the survival of that people. Primarily, the University, which gathers the young, but also hospitals and courts. In the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, these institutions have been the pillars of survival. The interpretation that we are investing there because we want to separate it and let everything else sink is wrong. That is not correct.

On Hashim Thaqi as a potential negotiator:

There are many reasons why Thaqi is not the “right man” in any respect. The ethnic-Albanian interpretation that the decentralisation we are asking for is leading to the partitioning of Kosovo. But if you look at where Serbs live and how far away from one another these places are, you can see that partitioning is not physically possible and that it is out of the question as much as independence is. What ethnic Albanians have offered through some of their lobbyists such as Morton Abramovich was to divide Kosovo by a “three for three” formula. Three municipalities in northern Kosovo, not including Kosovska Mitrovica, for three municipalities in the south of central Serbia. This is at the same time what Thaqi has to offer and he can keep it for himself because independence or the partitioning of Kosovo are not options we will discuss.