MR. STANKOVIC: THE SITUATION IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF CENTRAL SERBIA IS STABLE

6. December 2013.

President of the Coordinatiоn Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, Zoran Stankovic, said yesterday that despite the deadlock in the dialogue with the leaders of the Albanian parties, the security situation in the southern part of Central Serbia was stable and that there were no inter-ethnic incidents.

"I have full support of the Government of Serbia to lead the talks with representatives of the Albanian parties", said Mr. Stankovic.

Mr. Stankovic said that discussions with representatives of the Albanians from the southern part of Central Serbia should lead to a definitive stand on their position in Serbia and on if the law, the Constitution and the International Conventions on National Minorities applied to them.

According to Mr. Stankovic, he has nothing against the Albanians speaking with the Prime Minister and the First Deputy Prime Minister, but everything that the Coordination Body is doing has already been agreed with Mr. Vucic and Mr. Dacic.

Mr. Halimi said that the talks had been broken off because the government irresponsibly entered into the talks with the Albanian community in South Serbia, since it was guided by the results of the census, which were, for well-known reasons, boycotted by the Albanians in 2001.

"If the Government treats these problems in an irresponsible fashion, the talks are then counter-productive," said Mr. Halimi.

Asked whether he would participate in the new census, provided it was organized in the following year, Mr. Halimi said that the decision depended on whether the mistakes would be rectified.

"We always participated in censuses when they were held under normal conditions, but by no means did we participate in it under the conditions existing in 2011,” Mr. Halimi said.

Source: Tanjug News Agency and Coordination Body