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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Kosovo election pointless without Serbs

Belgrade, 4 August 2004

Aleksandar Simic, the legal advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister, gave an interview to Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti, in which he spoke about the reasons why Kosovo-Metohija Serbs should not vote in the provincial parliamentary election slated for October. The official web site of the Serbian government brings excerpts from the interview.

The government has recommended that local Serbs should not cast their ballots in the election. Simic, the only Serb national to have taken part in the drafting of the Kosovo constitutional framework in 2001, said that Serb participation in the election would mean abandoning the government’s plan for Kosovo-Metohija and all activities aimed at ensuring safety for the Serb community and creating conditions for Serb return.

There is a dilemma: Did the government choose the right strategy?

The government could not have made any other decision. The parliament obliged it to observe the plan for Kosovo-Metohija.

Is there a possibility that we see the same situation as in 2001 when Serbs took part in the election because of outside pressure?

We estimated then that it was in the interest of the state that Serbs do not take part in the election. Haekkerup and Covic signed an agreement which envisaged permanent forms of cooperation between Belgrade and Pristina. However, it was a one-time use agreement. The Serb side was tricked and it will not happen again.

So, the decision is final? You are not waiting for the international community to approve the plan and then change the decision?

This is the final decision. No one said that the plan was bad. They said that the only problem was to persuade ethnic Albanians to accept it.

And that Belgrade should persuade them…

That can only be interpreted as the international community’s irresponsibility. I believe that the international community is now caught in its own trap. On one hand, it has become clear to the international community that it will be difficult to create a multiethnic society in Kosovo-Metohija. On the other hand, the international community is becoming a hostage to the ethnic Albanian majority.

Does the government have a post-election strategy?

As Javier Solana said, there is a point in democratic elections only if all ethnic communities take part.

How compatible is UNMIK’s local self-government plan with the government’s plan for Kosovo?

UNMIK’s plan does not concern Serbs, but rather the reform of local self-government in Kosovo. That plan is not incompatible with the government’s plan, but it calls for more time.

How serious is EU official Bernard Bot’s proposal for a confederation of Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo-Metohija?

Certain sources were quick to rebuff the initiative. Since no one mentioned the proposal here, I am not sure whether it was a serious initiative or just an idea that was supposed to trigger off a reaction. All I can say is that Europe has sent a clear message that there can be no change of borders. If that is the way things are, then the international community must tell ethnic Albanians that there can be no independent Kosovo.

You and Slobodan Samardzic visited Contact Group countries. What is your impression of the visit?

The message is that the government’s plan has not been rejected. This is the first time that Serbia is pursuing an active policy on Kosovo-Metohija, and the world has hailed that. The Kosovo problem cannot be solved quickly. That problem is our reality and our future, but it is a problem that we must learn to live with.