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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

UNMIK fails to meet Resolution 1244 obligations

Belgrade, 28 July 2004

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica met today with members of the Povratak coalition, as well as with representatives of several Serb organisations from Kosovo, to discuss the position of the Serb community in the province, the implementation of the Serbian government’s Plan, the latest initiative by UNMIK and Kosovo interim institutions concerning a plan for local-self government, and the participation of Serbs in Kosovo elections due in October.

The Prime Minister and the Kosovo Serb leaders agreed that UNMIK has failed to fulfill its obligations under the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1244 and to repair the damage from the March 17 and 18 pogrom against Serbs by ethnic-Albanian separatists. The participants in the meeting voiced discontent with the neglect of the Serbian government’s plan for greater institutional protection of the Serb community. Instead, a new plan for local self-government is being put forward, which gives no answer to the critical question in Kosovo-Metohija, that being the security of Serbs and other non-Albanians. They also said that nobody has anything against the creation of a modern, decentralised Kosovo-Metohija, but warned that the proposed approach gives no guarantees of the survival and return of Serbs to the province.

Kostunica and Kosovo Serbs said that Serbs’ participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections is impossible without prior institutional guarantees of their survival and return. Since previous elections in Kosovo have failed to improve the position of Serbs in the province, the upcoming polls are not expected to bring progress without institutional guarantees. Legitimate representatives of Kosovo Serbs will make a decision on the elections depending on an improvement of the position of the Serb community in the province and in line with the Serbian government’s Plan.