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Talks on Kosovo-Metohija main goal of Serbia’s initiative at UN

Belgrade, 22 September 2008

Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Goran Bogdanovic stated yesterday that return to talks on Kosovo status is the main goal of the initiative which Serbia started at the UN General Assembly.

File photo of Goran Bogdanovic

Author: Tanjug

In a statement to the Tanjug news agency, Bogdanovic said that the inclusion of Serbia’s initiative in the UN General Assembly’s agenda is a great victory, but added that the major portion of work has not yet been done.

We expect the struggle to continue at the General Assembly in order to win over as many countries as possible who will vote for our resolution, stressed the Minister adding that although this will not be an easy task, Serbia wants to transfer political issues to the legal field.

I believe that the majority of countries will understand us and support the initiative because Kosovo’s independence is entirely illegitimate and violates international law, Resolution 1244 and the Helsinki Final Act, he explained.

According to him, Belgrade intends to resume talks on Kosovo status and reach a solution acceptable to both sides.

The unilateral recognition of Kosovo’s independence has created a situation in which Albanians got everything, and the other sides, the Serbs, lost everything. I think this is absolutely unacceptable, emphasised Bogdanovic and added that the fact that few countries acknowledged Kosovo confirms the belief that the majority of states have realised that the declaration violates international law and Resolution 1244.

He also recalled that it is in Serbia’s interest to retain Kosovo within its borders.

We are working on that and will continue doing so, and that is our principled stance. According to resolution 1244, Serbia wants cooperation with UNMIK and KFOR and will invest all efforts to improve that cooperation. Naturally, we want all citizens in the province to exercise their rights – the right to freedom with civilization norms, the right to the freedom of movement, the right to a life without fear, legal and economic freedom and other freedoms that are features of a civilised society, he specified.

We must reach a common goal and that is to enable Serbs, Gorani, the Roma and other non-ethnic Albanians to move around the province without fear, he stressed and added that principled struggle to retain Kosovo within Serbia must be continued, primarily through the UN.

Bogdanovic said that unity within Serbia is needed and stressed that the Kosovo issue cannot be a matter of one party, one coalition or government, but a national and state issue.

According to him, this is why the resolution on Kosovo has been withdrawn from Serbian parliament, so that broader consensus on the adoption of the new resolution can be achieved.

The Minister said he expects to resume talks on the proposed resolution on Kosovo on September 23 and that in the end the understanding of parties in Serbian parliament will prevail and the resolution will be adopted with the majority vote.

Bogdanovic pointed out that resolutions submitted by other parliamentary groups are quite identical with the government’s because they too mention the preservation of continuity of state policy toward Kosovo and state that the so-called Republic of Kosovo is thereby annulled.

He said that the demand in the form of a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice in The Hague is not necessary because Serbia has already submitted the initiative to the UN General Assembly asking it to discuss the legality of the province’s independence.

According to him, party proposals related with the kidnapped and the missing, as well as the return of Serbs to the province, can be acceptable to the government and may be included in the proposed resolution on Kosovo.

Bogdanovic said he expects parties to find mutual points of understanding and achieve a broader consensus on the proposed resolution, with a very clear message to all citizens that Serbia still takes care of Kosovo and advocates principled preservation of territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.