Kosovo: constitution, protection, delay

Kosovo: constitution, protection, delay

According to Simić, Kosovo will be treated as an integral part of Serbia. In his words, this is precisely the legal mean necessary to guarantee that Serbia does not renounce its right to Kosovo.

Meanwhile, the UN Kosovo negotiations team experts have in Belgrade considered the remaining issues concerning the protection of the Serb cultural and religious heritage in the province. The criteria for the establishment of the protective zones were also discussed in the meeting with the Serbian negotiating team members.

Serbia insists on the return of all property and on deciding who is to be in charge of protecting the designated zone. The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) representatives took part in the discussions, as well as Leon Kojen, Dušan Bataković and Sanda Rašković-Ivić, state negotiating team members. Bataković told the Beta news agency that one of the agreements reached at the meeting was not to make public statements after it.

Still, the negotiating team secretariat told FoNet that Martti Ahtisaari’s team wanted an insight into the Serbian suggestion for the establishment of 42 protected zones around churches and monasteries.

The request for postponement is telling

In the meantime, the Serbian delegation has requested a postponement of the ongoing Vienna talks, without and official explanation as to the motives. President and prime minister’s advisers are keeping away from the journalists, with the Albanian language press emerging as the only source of information. It reports that the problem stems from the question of protection of the Serb community in the province. Dušan Janjić, a Kosovo expert, believes that question should not have been answered in that particular way.

“It shows Belgrade incapable of organizing and preparing itself, and obviously the negotiating team itself is ready for some new faces. Now, the delay request opens up political speculation, none of it in Belgrade’s favor. Firstly, some of it benefits the Kosovo Albanians, which are very deft at portraying the situation as a plot to stall and obstruct. And secondly, this benefits various Rohan’s and Ahtisaari’s exit strategies, in other words, demonstrates that Belgrade is in fact unprepared to come up with a constructive approach to the talks”, Janjić said.

On the other hand, Kosovo authorities are rejecting the idea of the talks’ postponement, and have consequently confirmed that their team will be in Vienna on August 7. Kosovo’s deputy prime minister Lufti Haziri said that Belgrade’s request for a delay constituted an attempt to stall the process.

Census

Kosovo authorities, with UNMIK’s and EU’s unofficial backing, are preparing to organize a census in Kosovo. The BBC reports that the census will not include the forcibly displaced citizens. According to the report, members of the Albanian diaspora will be able to prove permanent Kosovo residence with two witnesses’ statements vouching that the person in question has not lived outside Kosovo for more than a year. The Supervisory committee dealing with citizenry and households observation in Kosovo, made up of UN, EU and CoE experts, estimated in its report in June that conditions for a valid and objective census in Kosovo do not exist, and suggests a trial census to take place in October. According to the BBC’s well informed sources, the Kosovo authorities have rejected that deadline