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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Resolution 1244 to remain framework for determining future status of Kosovo-Metohija

Belgrade, 1 February 2006

Head of the Coordinating Center for Kosovo-Metohija Sandra Raskovic-Ivic said today that the conclusion reached at yesterday’s ministerial meeting of the Contact Group in London is reassuring. The Contact Group decided that Resolution SB UN 1244 should remain the framework for the ongoing process of determining the status of Kosovo-Metohija.

Sandra Raskovic-Ivic

Raskovic-Ivic in a written statement recalled that the Resolution 1244 defines Kosovo-Metohija as an area inside Serbia-Montenegro.

She said that the expectation of the Contact Group that Belgrade be mindful that any future solution should be acceptable to the people of Kosovo-Metohija “represents knocking on an open door”.

She said that officials in Belgrade have been stressing since the beginning that the solution must be acceptable for all, including the people of Kosovo-Metohija but, importantly, also for the people of Serbia.

She expressed hope that the Contact Group will insist that one of the key positions in the conclusions of the London meeting, strong and effective decentralization of government in Kosovo-Metohija, should be implemented in full.

She said that this will, as the ministers of the Contact Group have also said, significantly assist the return of banished Serbs and other minority communities in Kosovo-Metohija in becoming a vital part of the future of the province.

According to Ivic, the position of the Contact Group that any future solution excludes a return to the situation before 1999, no division of Kosovo-Metohija or uniting it with any country or becoming part of any other country, means that there will be no changing of existing borders.

Slobodan Samardzic

Member of the Serbian negotiating team on the status of Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic, told news agency FoNet that the statement by the Contact Group does not bring up any new or surprising elements, but it does represent an initiative for continuation of direct talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija.

He said by insisting that 2006, be the year when final status be determined is simply not realistic, because in his opinion, all these complicated questions require time and a very serious negotiation process.