SOUTH SERBIA IS NOT THE TOPIC OF THE BRUSSELS TALKS

15. March 2013.

The Declaration of Albanians from South Serbia that seeks reciprocity in the rights that Serbs in the northern part of Kosovo should receive won’t be on the negotiating table in Brussels, said Zoran Stankovic. The only document that is the basis for the discussion is the joint platform of February 25, 2013, said Mr. Stankovic.

The Head of the Coordination Body for South Serbia, Zoran Stankovic, said that the declaration by which the Albanian deputies from Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja sought reciprocity in the rights that Serbs in the northern part of Kosovo should receive won’t be on the negotiating table in Brussels.

Asked to comment on the announcements of the Albanian leaders from South Serbia that they would request the resolving of the issue of their status in parallel with the future status of northern Kosovo, Mr. Stanković said for RTS that there weren’t any parallels between the two situations.

"We haven’t received requests from the declaration, which the Albanians from South Serbia adopted on March 9, 2013. I think that the point at issue here is some kind of pressure on the course of negotiations in Brussels, where the status of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo is discussed. That declaration can’t be on the negotiating table in Brussels", Mr. Stankovic said.

Mr. Stankovic stated that the only document on which the talks of the government of Serbia with the Albanian leaders from the southern part of the country were based was the platform that was jointly agreed upon on February 25, 2013, and not the declaration adopted by the Albanian deputies from Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja on March 9, 2013.

"The issues whose resolving should include both the governmental bodies and local self-governmental bodies from the three southern Serbian municipalities, so that the people in that region could live better, are specified by the eight-point platform, which we brought into line with representatives of the Albanians from South Serbia and the OSCE Mission to Serbia on February 25”, Mr. Stankovic said.

Mr. Stankovic repeated that the attitudes for future talks with representatives of ethnic Albanians from Presevo and Bujanovac were agreed upon during the recent visit of the Head of the OSCE Mission in Serbia, Peter Burkhard, to those municipalities.

"We have agreed to solve the problems by means of using short, medium and long-term measures. One of the short-term solutions that will be carried out by the beginning of 2014 refers to the remark of Albanians that entry into the register was done only in Cyrillic ", said Mr. Stankovic.

Mr. Stankovic also said that it was envisaged to achieve medium-term solutions by the beginning of 2015, and long-term ones afterwards.

Commenting on the situation in the Pcinj district after recent floods, Mr. Stankovic said that the priority in providing assistance was given to households in the affected area, which had, until then, received 3, 500 dinars each.

"The situation remained critical despite the allocation of 1.3 million dinars in emergency aid to the flooded region. We have planned to send more aid, which would be in the amount of six million dinars, for the purpose of repairing the damage caused by floods in the Pcinj district”, Mr. Stankovic said.

Source: RTS