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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia continues policy in Serb and non-Albanian areas

Belgrade, 6 June 2008

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic spoke today to the Reuters news agency on the current situation in Kosovo-Metohija, EULEX mission and reconfiguration of UNMIK, the constitution of Serbian local bodies in Kosovo and Belgrade’s position on negotiations on the status of Kosovo.

Slobodan Samardzic

Author: Reuters

Samardzic told Reuters that the proclamation of Kosovo's constitution does not mean anything to Serbia, and that it considered it as illegal as the Albanians' first efforts to proclaim a constitution in September 1990 and their unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008. The date is in line with the transitional 120 days of the Ahtisaari plan, which was never passed in the UN SC and is therefore not legally binding for us. I am not saying that this will not be forced on us, as was the unilateral declaration of independence. But after Sunday comes Monday and the Serbs will continue to live their lives in Kosovo and Serbia will continue its own policy in Kosovo, he said. Samardzic said that Belgrade would implement its policy in areas where Serbs and non-Albanians loyal to Belgrade live.

Just as UNMIK gradually transferred powers to the provisional institutions of self-government, Belgrade took over competences in several areas. It now seems that parallelism is going to continue to exist, he said.

The fact is that these parallel institutions, this functional division, only represent the facts on the ground, he said, as Kosovo Serbs had made it clear that they refuse to live under Albanian rule. Local authorities that were elected in May 2008 by Kosovo Serbs are democratic representatives of the people there. They are legitimate and loyal to Serbia, and Belgrade will continue to finance their activities. Belgrade has so far been financing education, health and social welfare system since June 1999.

This government has also invested significantly in the economic development of municipalities with a Serbian majority, both in business development as well as improvement of infrastructure, the Minister for Kosovo-Metohija said. Next week, Serbs in Kosovo will constitute local assemblies as local institutions of governance, with legally elected representatives, Samardzic said noting that these institutions will be implementing Belgrade’s policy. Samardzic said Serbia categorically opposes deployment of the EULEX mission, as the purpose of that mission is to consolidate Kosovo's independence. Instead, Belgrade suggested a partnership pact with UNMIK that would effectively give it rights of governance in Serb areas, he said. This territory is temporarily under the UN mandate, as a UN ward, and to change anything, Serbia has to have a say. And the policy of the Western countries is the complete opposite, a policy of nobody asking Serbia for much. In this regard, Russia has been really consistent, as has China, which is not so vocal, but is equally steadfast, he said.

The West counted on Serbia caving in on its principal position, and when it did not happen, we now have a more or less frozen conflict, and this can only be done regularly by negotiations, Samardzic said.

The UN Secretary-General cannot succumb to outside pressure and cannot exert such a huge change of mandate on a UN mission on his own. This can only be done through the Security Council, and again, this is in line with Article 5 of Resolution 1244 which states this explicitly, Samardzic underlined.

If the EU were to form a new mission that would be a pillar of UNMIK in Kosovo, as it has done so far in the economic development, Serbia would have nothing against that, he said.

However, EULEX has only one mandate, to implement Ahtisaari’s plan, which means independence for Kosovo. We cannot accept such a mission even under the UN umbrella. We are not ready to discuss any reconfiguration. There is too little time to discuss our six points if the deadline is June 15, he said and recalled Serbia's policy was to negotiate for a solution, but not under artificial pressure. Samardzic said Russia had been a consistent and principled ally so far, and would support anything that Belgrade agreed to, adding that Serbia was counting also on the 150-odd countries that had not recognised Kosovo.

What we have here is a more or less frozen conflict that will last long and can be resolved only through negotiations, he said. Asked about the future negotiations, the Minister said that "we cannot change Albanians overnight, nor do we want to”.

They think they should have an independent country of Kosovo, Samardzic said and warned that we have our laws, both international as well as domestic.

Samardzic said that at the initial negotiations on Kosovo's future the Kosovo Albanians were so fixated on independence they would turn down anything less, such as Serbia's offer of greater autonomy. For now, Serbia was seeking an interim solution that would safeguard peace and stability. But in the future, when Albanians grow disillusioned and come to realise that they had achieved very little, Serbia expects the two sides to sit down and negotiate a permanent settlement, he said.

International financial institutions still do not allow Kosovo to become a member, Samardzic said, adding that the solution we offered would guarantee both peace and autonomy, which would be better than the quasi-independence they have now. Samardzic declined to speculate if Serbia's policy on Kosovo would remain unchanged under a firmly pro-EU government, but said that although the EU is very important, EU integrations are very important for Serbia, Serbia cannot sacrifice Kosovo for the sake of EU membership.

We have to be able to trust our partner. If Kosovo is taken from Serbia then the deal-breaker is not Serbia, but the EU, trumping on the agreement but also on its own rules and European principles. Entering into close relations with the EU at the moment when 20 member states have recognized the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence – I can only interpret this as indirect recognition of Kosovo, Samardzic concluded.