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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Kosovo-Metohija cannot be object of trade

Belgrade/New York, 14 February 2006

Serbian President Boris Tadic said at the United Nations Security Council session held in New York today that Kosovo-Metohija and the rights of Serbs in that province cannot be an object of trade, and stressed that Belgrade is ready for political compromise and a solution for Kosovo-Metohija based on agreement.

Serbian President Boris Tadic addresses the United Nations Security Council

Author: Tanjug/EPA

In his speech at the Security Council session on Kosovo-Metohija, Tadic said that the political platform of Belgrade offers a solution for Kosovo-Metohija based on agreement, without one-sided changes in internationally recognised borders and political instability.

The Serbian President said that democratic Serbia is ready for direct negotiations between the two sides and stressed that Belgrade is entering that process despite the fact that no progress whatsoever has been made in the fulfillment of standards, as also concluded in the report by UN Secretary-General on the results made in the second half of 2005.

Such a situation has had bad consequences for everyone in the province, but the worst hit are the Serbs. It is not only that they are the ones who are most persecuted and discriminated against, but there are also great injustices done to the Serbs after June 1999, which have mostly not been set right, Tadic said.

According to Tadic, even if there has been some progress in the fulfillment of standards, it is not real progress if it has no bearing on the burning questions of the return of Serb population and the issue of Serb enclaves in Kosovo-Metohija.

According to Tadic, in such a situation it is understandable that Serbia, including Serbs in the province, see the process of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija with as much anxiety as hope.

“Let us hope that the present position of Kosovo-Metohija, which satisfies neither Serbs nor ethnic Albanians, nor the international community, will be changed for a lasting, stable and just solution reached through negotiations on the future status,” said Tadic.

He stressed that legal and political principles of international law cannot be valid for certain peoples and states, and ignored when some others are concerned. He said that Serbian people learned that lesson from its terrible heritage of the 1990s and proved that in 2000 when it ousted peacefully the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

He reiterated that Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, like all the people in the world, have the right to personal freedom and safety, protection of their national and cultural identity, freedom of expression and political organisation, freedom of religious expression and protection of property.

They must be given these rights because in that way the international administration in the province and through it, the organisation of the United Nations itself, would fulfill the fundamental obligations they pledged to in the Resolution 1244, Tadic stressed.

The Serbian President underlined that these rights are not and cannot be an object of trade between Belgrade and Pristina, stressing that freedom, justice and democracy are values that cannot be a subject of political bargaining, but that they belong to every human being.

Commenting on the upcoming first round of talks on the future status of Kosovo and Metohija, which will focus on decentralisation of authority in the province, Tadic said that Belgrade's plan on decentralisation is the minimum institutional framework for survival of Serbs in the province.

Tadic said that the position of the ethnic Albanian side towards this plan will show what can be expected in the continuation of negotiations that will concern the future status of Kosovo.

The Serbian president reiterated that Serbia is ready for these talks and that it will do its level best to make them succeed, protecting its legitimate interests and at the same time respecting those of the others.