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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

UNMIK can authorise Serbian institutions to organise elections in Kosovo

Belgrade, 11 April 2008

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said that under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, local elections in Kosovo are to be called and organised by UNMIK, and implied that it is possible for UNMIK to transfer the jurisdictions for the organisation of local and parliamentary elections in the province to Serbian institutions.

File photo of Slobodan Samardzic

Author: Tanjug

Upon his return from Kosovo, Samardzic recalled that the mission authorised Kosovo interim institutions for the November parliamentary and local elections. I expect UNMIK to do the same now, except in this case it will authorise the Serbian institutions, the Minister told TV Pink.

According to him, UNMIK did not entrust Serbian institutions with organising the 2002 local elections but organised them on their own, but that was a different situation at that time.

We have quite a different situation today because the Albanians unilaterally proclaimed independence on February 17 and UNMIK is not implementing Resolution 1244 in one sense in consultation together with Serbia, he stressed and explained that this is the essence of the talks on the signing of a joint agreement.

Samardzic also noted there are organisational and technical problems in helping Serbs who left the interim Kosovo institutions, adding that there are no political problems about that.

The government adopted a Conclusion in February to take over and financially support the Serbs and other non-Albanians who lost their jobs, the Minister said.

Samardzic rejected as incorrect the information that Serbs who live to the north of the Ibar River are paid double monthly allowances and stressed that most of the Serbs who left the province’s interim institution did not receive salaries.

Only a smaller part of the Serbs who left the Kosovo Police Service received double payments, he said and added that the government will soon find a solution to pay regular monthly allowances to Serbs in Kosovo.