"Important that Serbs take part in government"

"Important that Serbs take part in government"

At a news conference held after the meeting, Đurić said that "it is in the Serbs' interest to take a united front and participate in the political process in the province so as to further their interests within institutional frameworks."

He noted that, in the next several months, the objective is to work together on creating and building a community of Serb municipalities.

Asked whether that means that the Serbs would enter the Kosovo government and that they would be able to cooperate with Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj, Đurić said that it was "very important for the Serbs to assume a part of the responsibility for administering the institutions in Kosovo and engage in the government."

“We do not prejudge what would be a future structure of the provincial government, but we know that it is of immense importance for our community in Kosovo to have an impact on the developments,” Đurić told reporters.

Đurić noted that the meeting marked "a turnabout" in the Serbs' political activities, Tanjug reported.

Representatives of the Serbs "voiced the satisfaction about the agreement, and underscored that they had so far paid a huge price for the lack of unity."

Đurić also expressed the expectation that Serb politician in Kosovo Oliver Ivanović would be released from prison "in the next few days."

”We expect and hope that we will have a chance in the next few days to confer with Oliver Ivanović but that he will this time be free,” Đurić told the news conference.

He underscored that the Serbian government is giving moral support to all defendants in this case and similar proceedings.

”We want the province to be a place marked by rule of law and justice instead of rule of force and injustice,” Đurić said.

Ivanović was detained on January 27 on suspicion that he participated in the war crimes against ethnic Albanians in 1999 and 2000 but an indictment against him has not been raised.