MR. STANKOVIC AND 24 OSCE AMBASSADORS IN BUJANOVAC

11. September 2013.

Zoran Stankovic, the President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, met in Bujanovac with the ambassadors of the OSCE member countries. The meeting was attended by the Albanian and Serbian political leaders from the area, too.

He said that there were no problems that could cause tensions in the region and expressed the expectation that the Serbian government would, in the near future, continue its talks with the Albanian leaders about resolving the seven points from the Report that was adopted in June.

Mr. Stankovic mentioned the meeting between the Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and the Albanian leaders, which ought to have taken place in mid-July, and added that, in the meantime, the Albanian leaders talked to the first Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. He explained that all of us had to acknowledge the fact that the Serbian Prime Minister had had duties in Brussels and that the Serbian government had been reconstructed, which led to the postponement of the meeting with the Albanian leaders of the three municipalities.

“We’ll try to organize the meeting in the period ahead of us and begin discussing at least one topic, if not this month, then the next one. We can’t wait any longer for these talks to be postponed", Mr. Stankovic said.

He said that it was necessary, in the presence of and with the explanation of all the activities that we had been taking with the Albanian leaders, including the Serbian leaders, too, to contribute to the solving of the problems", so that we could have a better insight into whether there are any laws here and who is respecting them and who isn’t.

"We started a series of discussions so that we could, after 12 years, finally take the measures for putting the demands of the Albanians into the framework of the Constitution, the laws of Serbia and international conventions", said the President of the Coordination Body.

When asked what the ambassadors had questioned him about, Mr. Stankovic said that the OSCE Ambassador from Germany had raised the issue of security structures and their effectiveness.

"We underlined the fact that 11,500 asylum-seekers from the Arab countries, who had been moving towards Western Europe, were caught just last year. We said that that was one of the ways for transporting drugs, weapons and white slaves, and that the situation was better owing to the security structures”, said Mr. Stankovic.

The President of the Coordination Body pointed out that there were no demands during the talks that the Albanians from the southern part of the country should be granted the same rights as the Serbs from the northern part of Kosovo and Metohija.

"Our position on the issue, as well as the position of the international community, is clear. There are no parallels whatsoever between the northern Kosovo and Metohija and the three municipalities", said Mr. Stankovic.

He believes that the talks with the Albanian leaders are a good way for resolving the outstanding issues.