Minority rights top Vienna agenda today

Minority rights top Vienna agenda today

Marko Jakšić, who along with Goran Bogdanović is representing the Kosovo Serbs in the discussions, said that discussions of the rights of minorities can only be held within the framework of Kosovo status talks and the political reorganisation of Priština.

“To agree to discussions of the rights of a community outside of this context would mean that we agree on the status of a minority, and it is generally accepted and natural that a people cannot be considered a minority in their own country, because we are Serbs from Kosovo, a region that we have always seen and will always see as an inseparable part of the sovereign state of Serbia.” Marko Jakšić said.

Chief of the Kosovo delegation in the minority rights discussions, Veton Suroi, said that the Albanian side is prepared to listen to the international community and the Serbian team during the first meeting.

“We are interested to hear from both the international side and the Serbian side to see how Belgrade sees the future of the Serbian community in Kosovo, whether we can help in realising their rights…and how to establish cultural ties between their community and others.” Suroi said.

He added that the Priština delegation will be presenting its platform today, which he claims holds a solution that goes even farther than European norms call for.

The sixth round of discussions between the Belgrade and Priština delegations held yesterday in Vienna yielded little results once again. The talks failed to move the two sides any closer to a compromise regarding decentralisation and the number of Serbian municipalities need in Kosovo.

“A primitive approach”

Leader of the Serbian List in Kosovo, Oliver Ivanović told B92 that the decision to not participate is the wrong one.

“No one can know what our problems are better than we can in this field and no one knows better than we do about how under-spoken we are in the institutions. The question of collective rights is not solved in the institutions alone, so I think that our attendance should be mandatory. The decision to not participate is a consequence of the earlier stance of participation and legitimacy, but the institutions exists and no one can deny their legitimacy, at least not in that way. The only people who have information from the field regarding Serbs will not be participating in the discussions. I think that this is the wrong move. We are losing a lot of points in the preliminary rounds, which will be a problem in the finish. The Serbs in Kosovo will be even more concerned by the fact that their interests are not being protected by people from their region but by theorists.” Ivanović said.

“We want to integrate into the institutions, but to also have a mechanism for protection. We want to have protective rights, which no one will be able to change with a vote in parliament. The Albanian majority should not be allowed the possibility of changing something like that without more than half of the Serbian officials’ votes. That is the way towards integration, but building walls and separation, that is a primitive approach; they are not good solutions and are only increasing tensions. Serbs will be the first to suffer from these tensions, and will deal with it the same they have been so up until now, by moving away.” Ivanović said.