MR. STANKOVIC: DIALOGUE AND TOLERANCE SOLVE ALL THE ISSUES BETWEEN ALBANIANS AND SERBS

24. November 2014.

Bujanovac – Zoran Stankovic, the President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, said in an interview granted to “FoNet” that his activities in the past period and his visits to South of Serbia implied an extremely correct relationship with the Albanians, and noted that tolerance and dialogue solved all the problems.

He, however, believes that all those who think that they will very quickly solve something that lasts for a longer period of time are hugely mistaken, but he also points to the attempts to present various problems as unsolvable.

Mr. Stankovic expects from all those who work on resolving the problems of this area to “behave so that they mutually socialize and build mutual trust”.

“When you have examples of community leaders in a multi-ethnic environment socializing with each other, visiting each other, going together to concerts or walking around the city together, then the others will follow their suit and everything is much easier”, says Mr. Stankovic.

Some people think that tolerance might be someone's weakness or a lack of courage, pointed Mr. Stankovic, and said that that he, in contrast, believed that tolerance and dialogue solved everything.

“If you develop a habit that people in leadership positions become examples of tolerance”, said Stankovic, “then people, too, will behave in that manner”.

According to Mr. Stankovic, there are no inter-ethnic conflicts in the area of three municipalities in South Serbia, as shown by the data of state bodies.

“The fact that criminals act in this and that way, and that they, no matter from which ethnic communities they come, work together well”, as estimated by Mr. Stankovic, “is present everywhere in the world”.

But, we should take advantage of this fact, which says that ethnic relations are very good, and we should building upon it very good economic relations, too” , said Mr. Stankovic.

The solution of the problems, which the Albanian leaders from these municipalities defined in seven points, should contribute to solving the overall situation in South Serbia, which, as noted by Mr. Stankovic, it is important for the integration of Albanians in the Serbian state system.

The state institutions prioritized the seven-point talks on the issues that the Albanian leaders considered urgent”, Mr. Stankovic said, recalling that the Serbian government adopted the decision on June 4, 2013.

And the talks began. However, the Albanian leaders suspended them and they weren’t resumed, which is a huge problem, said Mr. Stankovic.

That is why, in his words, “at this time we can’t even do a definite and specific assessment of the integration of Albanians”.

“It is certain that their demands will be resolved according to the Constitution, the existing laws and regulations on national minorities, which are regulated by the international conventions”, Mr. Stankovic is convinced.

He “personally thinks that the Albanians in the Republic of Serbia have all the rights that other national minorities have”, and considers “that the talks between the authorities of the Republic of Serbia and the ethnic Albanians” should regulate the issue of the ways of achieving them.

Source: “FoNet” news agency, “Politika” daily and Coordination Body