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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Belgrade cannot invite Kosovo Serbs to vote in provincial election

New York / Belgrade, 5 August 2004

Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Zoran Loncar told a UN Security Council session today that Serbian authorities cannot encourage Kosovo-Metohija Serbs to vote in the province’s parliamentary election under the present circumstances.

Zoran Loncar

Loncar also said that a Kosovo decentralisation plan, prepared by UNMIK and the Kosovo government, does not offer solutions to basic problems of local Serbs, which he said are return and survival.

According to the Minister, the solutions are proposed in a Serbian government’s plan which supposes that strong institutional guarantees for local Serbs might encourage them to vote in the parliamentary election slated for October 23.

Serbia-Montenegro is concerned about UNMIK’s failure to meet its obligations set out in the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and to put an end to ethnic clashes in the province, said Loncar. The Minister noted that UNMIK is also tasked with establishing a democratic self-government that would ensure peaceful life for all Kosovo residents, create conditions for the return of refugees, and protect human rights.

Loncar said that the reason for UNMIK’s failure was not in a lack of good will or conscientiousness in the international community and he added that it was impossible for the international community to protect Serb’s human rights in Kosovo, since they are, as he said, exposed to persecution by “well organised, extreme Kosovo Albanians and terrorist structures.

That is why the Serbian government, according to Loncar, has put forward the Plan for a Political Solution through firm institutional guarantees as the only possible solution to protect the remaining Serbs in Kosovo. The plan also includes the only possible pre-conditions for the return of displaced people, currently living in central Serbia.

The plan does not offer ultimate solutions and is open to changes. It represents a realistic assessment of the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, said Loncar and added that the situation in Kosovo is unlike any other in Europe. He stressed that there is along way ahead before standards in Kosovo are reached, especially when it comes to security for minorities, return, and freedom of movement.

The Serbian government’s plan guarantees institutional mechanisms to protect the rights of minorities, with a special status for churches and monasteries, as well as protection of minorities by the international forces, said Loncar and added that ensuring autonomy and institutional guarantees for Serbs and other ethnic communities is Kosovo is the only way to create conditions for a multiethnic and multicultural society.