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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Third round of negotiations on decentralisation ends without progress

Belgrade/Vienna, 4 April 2006

Member of the team for political talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija and Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Simic said last night in Vienna that the third round of negotiations on the decentralisation of Kosovo-Metohija ended without any progress.

Aleksandar Simic

Author: Tanjug

Speaking at a press conference, Simic said that yesterday’s talks were specific and concerned the document that was composed by the Office of UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija Martti Ahtisaari. “We were able only to forward our objections to that document, but those objections were not discussed,” said Simic.

He said that the Belgrade team made methodological objections to the document that contains indications that certain rights demanded by Serbs, should be realised in line with the laws and legal system of Kosovo-Metohija. “We said that we are now in the process of creating the legal system of Kosovo-Metohija and that the rights of Serbs must be guaranteed by the constitution,” said Simic.

According to Simic, in order for Serbs to survive a legal system must be created which will guarantee them their unalienable rights, and the negotiating team is making efforts that these unalienable rights are tied to constitutional rights that later may not be revoked by the parliament in Pristina.

Simic said that the most sensitive question still lays ahead, which is the formation of new municipalities and their borders. He added that that issue will be discussed at the next round of negotiations. He said it is clear that Serbs will get new municipalities which will be south of Ibar.

Those municipalities will be mutually connected and have their bodies and organs, but will not be territorially connected. Thus the fear of ethnic Albanians and the international community that the Serb entity might lead to divisions in the future is not justified, said Simic.

Member of the Belgrade team and Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister Slobodan Samardzic said that the basic aim of decentralisation is to secure the return, safety and free movement of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

Samardzic said that it is important that normal living conditions are created for Serbs, who have already lived for six years as a community victimised by discrimination. He added that guarantees for Serbs should be part of the agreement so that later they cannot be made an object of conflict in the institutions of Kosovo-Metohija.

He said that the Belgrade delegation insists that Serbs should have full autonomy in six spheres, which are education, health, culture, social policy, religion and the protection of cultural and religious heritage.