Samardžić: Local authorities within two weeks

Kosovo Minister Slobodan Samardzic says that local governments chosen at the May 11 elections will be formed in Kosovo within the next fortnight. Samardzic, DSS, also said that the problems within the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) had to be solved. Samardzic: Local authorities within two weeks After Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, Serb officers left the KPS in protest, with Belgrade promising to pay their wages, a promise it has yet to keep. He said that the main goal of his visit to central Kosovo was to help local Serbs constitute municipal administrations after the elections, whose validity is contested by UNMIK. “After the elections, new local governments will be constituted—a municipal assembly and executive council that will take over the running of the local administration,” Samardzic explained. He also spoke with representatives of the suspended Serb KPS officers, who left the service at Belgrade’s instigation in February and have not yet received the financial assistance they were promised. “We have a solution which is, at least for the initial phase, satisfactory, and then there will be one lasting systematic solution, around early June, when the responsibility will be financially assumed by the Serbian Interior Ministry,” the minister said. Even though he was not invited, Kosovo District Chief Goran Arsic also attended the meeting, according to Radio KiM. “This is further proof that the Kosovo Minister is still dividing officials in the province along party lines,” Arsic said. After a meeting with Bishop Artemije, Samardzic went on to visit municipalities in Kosovsko Pomoravlje. Meanwhile, UNMIK has reiterated that Serb officials elected at the recent local elections in Kosovo are not legitimate. UNMIK spokesman Alexander Ivanko told B92 that the results of the May 11 local elections were not considered legal or valid by the UN mission. “At this moment in time, our position is that we will not cooperate with these people. We will close that bridge the same moment the Serbian government tries to constitute some form of local government in Kosovo. These are administrators of parallel structures that have no legitimacy and should not be functioning. Belgrade should realize that this is violating Resolution 1244,” Ivanko stressed. He repeated UNMIK’s position that the elections should have been organized in the five municipalities and regions where Serbs make up the majority population, as was offered to Belgrade when the local elections in Kosovo were first called. Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said that efforts to create Serb parallel structures in Kosovo should be addressed “clearly and energetically.” “It is high time to clearly and energetically respond to all parallel structures Serbia wants to build in Kosovo,” Sejdiu said late on Monday, in a meeting with OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Knut Vollebekk. According to Pristina electronic media, Sejdiu said that the future of Kosovo did not lie in parallel institutions, but rather in the cooperation of its citizens, in respecting local and international institutions and adherence to them until Kosovo acceded to “international mechanisms,” and in its contribution as an important partner. Slobodan Samardzic (FoNet)

Samardžić: Local authorities within two weeks

After Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, Serb officers left the KPS in protest, with Belgrade promising to pay their wages, a promise it has yet to keep.

He said that the main goal of his visit to central Kosovo was to help local Serbs constitute municipal administrations after the elections, whose validity is contested by UNMIK.

“After the elections, new local governments will be constituted—a municipal assembly and executive council that will take over the running of the local administration,” Samardžić explained.

He also spoke with representatives of the suspended Serb KPS officers, who left the service at Belgrade’s instigation in February and have not yet received the financial assistance they were promised.

“We have a solution which is, at least for the initial phase, satisfactory, and then there will be one lasting systematic solution, around early June, when the responsibility will be financially assumed by the Serbian Interior Ministry,” the minister said.

Even though he was not invited, Kosovo District Chief Goran Arsić also attended the meeting, according to Radio KiM.

“This is further proof that the Kosovo Minister is still dividing officials in the province along party lines,” Arsić said.

After a meeting with Bishop Artemije, Samardžić went on to visit municipalities in Kosovsko Pomoravlje.

Meanwhile, UNMIK has reiterated that Serb officials elected at the recent local elections in Kosovo are not legitimate.

UNMIK spokesman Alexander Ivanko told B92 that the results of the May 11 local elections were not considered legal or valid by the UN mission.

“At this moment in time, our position is that we will not cooperate with these people. We will close that bridge the same moment the Serbian government tries to constitute some form of local government in Kosovo. These are administrators of parallel structures that have no legitimacy and should not be functioning. Belgrade should realize that this is violating Resolution 1244,” Ivanko stressed.

He repeated UNMIK’s position that the elections should have been organized in the five municipalities and regions where Serbs make up the majority population, as was offered to Belgrade when the local elections in Kosovo were first called.

Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said that efforts to create Serb parallel structures in Kosovo should be addressed “clearly and energetically.”

“It is high time to clearly and energetically respond to all parallel structures Serbia wants to build in Kosovo,” Sejdiu said late on Monday, in a meeting with OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Knut Vollebekk.

According to Priština electronic media, Sejdiu said that the future of Kosovo did not lie in parallel institutions, but rather in the cooperation of its citizens, in respecting local and international institutions and adherence to them until Kosovo acceded to “international mechanisms,” and in its contribution as an important partner.