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TO POLITICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ALBANIANS FROM PRESEVO AND BUJANOVAC

11. February 2014.

Dear Sir/Madam,

In late November 2013, as the political and institutional representatives of the Albanians from Presevo and Bujanovac, you sent a letter to the Government of the Republic of Serbia, to the Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and to the First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, which was about your decision and the reasons for terminating the talks with the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia authorized the Coordination Body to reply to your letter and again expressed its full readiness to solve, through constructive talks, all the issues you suggested, which the Government accepted, including those referred to in the said letter, on the basis of the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Serbia and the international conventions on the rights of national minorities.

As you are aware, we defined the principles of our joint work and conduct at the very beginning of our talks. Upon reconstruction of the Government, the short-term (up to six months), medium-term (one year) and long - term (over one year) objectives were agreed upon, as well as the realization of the activities regarding the issues.  At the meeting held in his office in October 2013, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia requested that every three months, in his presence and in the presence of all participants in the talks, the results and implementation of the agreed solutions be analyzed and that  the responsibility of each participant in the talks that hadn’t respected and implemented the agreed solutions be determined. 

Following a very successful and constructive discussion, as you yourself mentioned, with the Minister of Health, which was held in October in Presevo, a meeting t with the Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development was scheduled for November 26, 2013. However, the said meeting wasn’t held because of your decision to suspend talks with the Government of the Republic of Serbia. Please be reminded that the topics planned for discussion in the period from November 2013 to February 2014 included the following: representation/integration in state institutions, decentralization of the judiciary, economic recovery, education, culture, the media, the official use of the language, script and national symbols, security and confidence- building measures.

The termination of the talks didn’t bring any good to anyone, let alone to the citizens of Presevo and Bujanovac. If we had had talks according to the agreed and specified schedule, we would surely have had the proposals concerning  the acceptable solutions to many issues now. 

Therefore, I reiterate my belief that only through discussions of all the interested parties may solutions to the problems faced by the citizens of Presevo and Bujanovac be found, and on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Serbia call on you to resume the talks,  convinced that it is in the interest of all people living in this region of our country.

PRESIDENT OF THE COORDINATION BODY

Prof. Zoran Stankovic, PhD