April 30, 2004

Belgrade Media Highlights

"Provided that border redrawing ideas were put in motion, next on the agenda will be the idea on annexation of western Macedonia and southern Serbia to Kosovo as an independent state. In such case, some of Albanian political leaders in Macedonia hinted at a possibility for Skopje to become a capital of the so-called greater Kosovo," Gligorov said in an exclusive interview with Bosnia & Herzegovina's national broadcaster. (Kiro Gligorov, former president of FYR Macedonia, MAKFAX, see more at the bottom)

 

Harri Holkeri at CoE’s Parliamentary Session (Balkan)

UNMIK Head Harri Holkeri has stated in Strasbourg that UNMIK and the international community will not close the doors for a single proposal from any side for resolving the problems in Kosovo. “We must examine very carefully every proposal and view every aspect of the plan proposed by Belgrade. We shouldn’t close the doors or windows. We want to keep open all the possibilities for the dialogue with the authorities in Belgrade,” Holkeri said at a press conference at the CoE’s headquarters. Holkeri said he didn’t see the draft plan for Kosovo, and added the most important thing was that all sides were ready for talks and that, if there was political will, one should also view possible compromises and joint starting points. Regarding the CoE’s plan on Kosovo’s decentralization, Holkeri said that it was a priority in UNMIK’s work, but at the same time expressed hope that it would be supported by both Belgrade and Pristina, but, first of all, the UNSC. Admitting that the international community has marked failure in Kosovo, Holkeri, nevertheless, stressed that UNMIK was not responsible for the violence, but those who implemented it and used the people’s frustration for their own goals.

 

Holkeri condemned violence and promised trial (Glas/Srna/AFP)

UNMIK Head Harri Holkeri has condemned in Strasbourg at the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly “extremists responsible for the March violence in Kosovo,” in which 19 people were killed and more than 900 injured, and promised they would be tried. “This violence is a horrible blow for the stabilization and normalization of this region, but we know that these are extremists who do not represent the inhabitants of Kosovo,” Holkeri said during the debate in the situation in Kosovo. “Crimes will be punished, and we will bring the culprits to justice. We will identify the leaders of the violence and in this we have the support the moderate majority in all ethnic communities,” said Holkeri.

 

Power to Serbs in five regions (Blic)

Serbian MPs accepted with no votes against, the plan for political solution of the situation in Kosovo made by Serbian government. This document plans territorial, cultural and personal autonomy for Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that the government supported a political solution in the province. The crucial characteristic of that solution is autonomy within autonomy. This solution is not to be given up. The UNSC should pass a new resolution that would make possible the setting up of a Serb autonomous community in Kosovo. “The new resolution would not replace the existing UNSCR 1244. It would only amend it with provisions that define the protection of the Serb national minority,” this document reads. Kostunica pointed out that he was expecting talks on this topic with representatives of the international community, especially the Contact Group. According to the plan, the Serb autonomous community should consist of five territorial units. The most important religious facilities and cultural-historical monuments would be protected if they would be part of these regions. If that is not the case, such monuments and facilities would enjoy special guarantees of protection by the international community. “There is a long political struggle ahead towards realizing that program,” Serbian Deputy Premier Miroljub Labus said.

 

RTS)

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica stated that the validity of ideas included in the Plan for resolving the situation in Kosovo would be first discussed with Ambassadors of the Contact Group member states. "We are offering talks, and as contribution, we are offering the plan as well.  We are convinced that it will have to be discussed in a concrete and constructive manner.  Standards for Kosovo are good, but for a society in which everything is already resolved.  Only persistence can help us gradually convince our interlocutors that there is no other solution," said Kostunica to journalists at the Serbian Parliament. He stressed  that  the  Serbian  government's  document was classified top secret  so  that the opinions of all party representatives and Kosovo Serbs could  be  heard calmly in order to reach full accord. Only representatives of  the caucuses in the Serbian Parliament were aware of the details of the plan. The  Contact  Group Ambassadors were only presented with the essence of the Plan, said the Serbian PM.

 

Plan for resolving situation in Kosovo (Politika)

In order to provide conditions for the protection of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo, the plan for the political solution of the current situation envisages the creation of territorial, cultural and personal autonomy. While the cultural and personal autonomy would represent the protection of the national identity of Serbs who would remain outside the Serb areas, territorial autonomy will mean five areas in Kosovo where Serbs made a majority prior to the expulsion in 1999. The Serb autonomy in Kosovo should be established with a special SC resolution that would amend UNSCR 1244, after which a statute of the Serb autonomous community would be composed, to be proclaimed by the SRSG with his decree. The plan, it is stressed at the end, represents a framework for possible talks with the international community.

 

Covic: We will demand responsibility of UNMIK (Danas/Beta)

The Head of the CCK Nebojsa Covic has stated that he will demand of UNMIK Head Harri Holkeri to revise the issue of responsibility of UNMIK, due to their attitude towards Albanian extremists’ violence in mid March. In a statement to Beta, Covic specified that certain UNMIK representatives, primarily UNMIK police spokespersons, were indirectly urging and justifying violence, thus contributing to an orchestrated campaign of Albanian extremists against Serbs, through the presentation of events in Kosovo to the international public by quoting media in the Albanian language. Covic announced that the CCK will also demand responsibility of the Kosovo media in Albanian, which blamed Serbs for the drowning of three Albanian boys in the Ibar River without any evidence, which was the immediate motive for the Albanian violence.

CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly adopts resolution on Kosovo (Politika/Tanjug)

The CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly has adopted a resolution on Kosovo in which UNMIK and the leaders of Kosovo Serbs and Albanians are called upon to work together on the implementation of the standards for Kosovo plan and support reform and the strengthening of the local self-rule. The resolution condemns in general the ethnic violence of March and states that responsibility for those events primarily lies in the ethnic nationalism of communities living in the province and partly in the international community. The standards for Kosovo plan remains the main task of the international community aimed at creating a multi-ethnic, stable and democratic Kosovo – it is emphasized in the document. Interim Kosovo institutions are called upon to cease supporting extremist groups, responsible for ethnic violence and prepare the plan for the return of IDPs and have the destroyed houses renovated.

 

Zoran Sami at CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly (Vecernje Novosti)

Zoran Sami, the Head of the SCG delegation with the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly, stated that the idea of multi-ethnic society in Kosovo has been faced with the fact that three fourths of the province has been ethnically cleansed of Serbs. The violence from March 17 to 19 represented organized terrorist actions aimed at ethnically cleansing Serbs and other non-Albanians, Sami said during a debate on the situation in Kosovo, at the sitting of the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg. He emphasized that the institutions of SCG and Serbia are determined to solve problems in Kosovo with political means. Speaking of the attempts of Albanian leaders at providing independence of Kosovo, Sami said that the Parliamentary Assembly should reply whether everyone in Europe who is not content with the state in which he or she lives is entitled to create a new state.

 

Return of Serbs to Pristina (Blic)

Eleven Serb families that left their homes during March violence and found shelter in Gracanica returned to their homes in Pristina escorted by KFOR. Their flats are in the YU Program Building. Another ten families also returned at their own initiative to the same building. It turned out that the flats have many disadvantages.

 

Kosovo Assembly’s request to enter International Parliamentary Union rejected (Vecernje Novosti/Tanjug)

At the summit of the International Parliamentary Union in Mexico, attended by the parliamentary delegations from 138 countries, the request by the Kosovo Assembly to be accepted in that union was rejected, member of the SCG parliamentary delegation Sanda Raskovic-Ivic told Tanjug. She warned that, in terms of procedure, there was a possibility for the Kosovo Assembly to be accepted in the International Parliamentary Union, assessing that it would be “one more step towards Kosovo’s independence,” but that this possibility was stopped as the request by the Kosovo Assembly was not even placed for voting.

 

SPECIAL REPORT

http://www.makfax.com.mk/news1-a.asp?br=68082

Independent Kosovo poses threat to Balkans borders, says Gligorov

Makfax News Agency, Skopje
April 30, 2004
Zagreb 4/30/04 12:55:28 PM

The former Macedonian president Kiro Gligorov cautioned that eventual independence of Kosovo could trigger a bitter aftermath on the region given the possibility of further shifting of borders of the countries of the old Yugoslav federation, Croatian news agency HINA said.

"Provided that border redrawing ideas were put in motion, next on the agenda will be the idea on annexation of western Macedonia and southern Serbia to Kosovo as an independent state. In such case, some of Albanian political leaders in Macedonia hinted at a possibility for Skopje to become a capital of the so-called greater Kosovo," Gligorov said in an exclusive interview with Bosnia & Herzegovina's national broadcaster.

Gligorov reckons that eventual opening of the issue on shifting the borders in the Balkan Region is risky given the 'open issues' between Serbia and Croatia, as well as in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

/end/


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