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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia's position on essential autonomy of Kosovo stated in Washington

Belgrade/Washington, 31 March 2006

Head of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic said last night in Washington that a delegation of the Coordinating Centre briefed American officials on the Serbian government's official position regarding the essential autonomy of Kosovo-Metohija and told them that Belgrade authorities will not give up on the negotiations.

Sanda Raskovic-Ivic

Author: Tanjug

She explained that American officials she met in Washington were mostly interested in whether Serbia is ready to accept the presence of ethnic-Albanians in its community, whether it is prepared to compromise, and if so then in what way. They also wanted to know if the negotiating team from Belgrade would at any point give up on the negotiations.

Raskovic-Ivic stressed that she told the officials that by offering essential autonomy Serbia has already made a compromise. She recalled that the condition Serbia is making is that Kosovo-Metohija becomes a demilitarised zone and representatives of international forces be the only armed units there.

She assured her hosts that Serbia will not at any point give up on the talks and pointed out that Belgrade insists that all issues regarding the talks be straightforward. Serbian representatives will not leave the negotiating table regardless of the turn the talks might take or who sits at the table, she added.

She said that Serbia does not wish to rule over ethnic-Albanians in Kosovo or to determine the way they should live. She pointed out that their future is completely and solely in their hands, because if there is a president of Kosovo, as well as parliament, judiciary and government, then the province can solve its matters on its own.

Advisor to the Serbian President Dusan Batakovic yesterday in Washington said that he briefed his American interlocutors on the position of the Serbian negotiating team concerning the Kosovo-Metohija decentralisation issue. He also presented to them a possible model of future co-existence in the province, which the Serbian side strongly advocates.

Batakovic pointed out that it is of great importance to create a new kind of cohabitation between ethnic-Albanians and Serbs, while Kosovo-Metohija will have a kind of elastic constitutional connection with Serbia which does not envisage Serb domination of the old kind.

There are no political barriers to the creation of a new, European, modern type of cohabitation, which includes sharing of sovereignty, not only at the regional or state levels, but at the level of our common European future, concluded Batakovic.