(Andrea
Saula)
Slug: Talks between Pristina and Belgrade will start, but
agenda, members of delegations, a mediator and the final outcome stay
Yllka: I think it will be better. All
talks bring something better and I think it will be better for us. This is the
way democracy is; everything can be reached with a dialogue.
Zana: I do not believe that anything concrete may
happen for the first time; neither side is ready. While graves are still being
opened in Kosovo I do not believe that anything can be achieved, neither side
can get anywhere.
Vojislav: These talks should happen and the
politicians should agree once and for all, so that people would live in peace,
with tolerance, have a s good life, like all people in the world live. Now,
It’s not up to us, it’s not up to the people since the people would agree fast,
and they would have solved these issues. But what will the politicians decide,
and how do they do It seems to me that they are doing it more for themselves
than for the good of the people.
Voices of Kosovan people giving their views about the
upcoming talks between Pristina and Belgrade.
Hello and welcome to this special edition of UNMIK on AIR
with Hysni Recica and Martin Redi.
Unfortunately in the recent history of the Balkans dialogue
between people is not the easiest thing to produce, not to think about having
people listen to each other. It has been four years
since the war ended in Kosovo, four years since weapons changed for words.
Now-a-days both sides are publicly showing more than readiness and willingness
to start a dialogue. Though the positions of the former enemies are still far
apart and the common ground between the two sides is not easy to find,
politicians are pushed both by unsolved vital and technical issues that have to
be discussed with the international community also.
UNMIK, the EU and the USA exercised pressure on
Belgrade and Pristina by explaining their common view that elementary
democratic standards must be met in the region in order to reach a solution.
But all those standards could be achieved only through dialogue. The
problem is the fact that the two sides have completely different ideas about
what kind of agenda should be taken up. K-Albanians are saying that they are
prepared to talk about technical issues that are essential for them while
K-Serbs are interested in discussing their vital problems. Generally
K-Albanians are refusing any kind of talks about status with Belgrade while
some voices in Serbia announced readiness to discuss even this topic. Hajredin
Kuqi, PDK media liaison officer is insisting on the need of an international
presence during dialogues.
Hajredin Kuqi: For practical issues we can talk to all
including Belgrade, though with Belgrade there are very few practical issues,
they are mainly political ones, but for defining the political status of
Kosovo, our negotiations should be done with the international community, and
in no way with Belgrade. I think with Belgrade we need to talk for complete
division, and for solution of issues of contest.
The other side, the other perspective. One of the representatives of Kosovar Serbs Nenad Radosavljevic, UNMIK’s chief senior advisor for Returns and Minority issues told us that he sees some other priorities that have to be discussed.
N. Radosavljevic: I think
the attention will be focused on major issues that the whole world have
recognized, i.e. safety, freedom of movement, return and some other issues
regarding the real and serious steps to stabilize the situation here.
It’s better to negotiate for ages
then to have a war in one day, says Omer Karabeg, a prominent Belgrade
journalist who left former Yugoslavia at the beginning of the Balkan conflict
in the 90’s and since then he has been mediating dialogues between opposites
sides in a radio show called “Bridge” on Radio Free Europe. Omer Karabeg who is
also the author of the book called “Serbian-Albanian dialogue 1994-2000” says
that his experience is telling him that the gap between the two sides is very
deep and that differences are more than obvious.
Omer Karabeg: I
think that it’s very hard to find a common ground for the Serbs and Albanians
to get together because everything starts from the fact that the Albanians are
for independence of Kosovo and the Serbs are for Kosovo to be a part of Serbia.
I think that between that there is no compromise.
Both sides do agree on one thing, that they
can’t talk alone and that they need a mediator. But they see different
mediators having different key roles depending on what goals they want to
achieve. Both sides strongly believe that certain mediators can help their aim.
The US is seen as a key
player and a key facilitator among K-Albanians political parties. Bujar
Dugolli, Head of the AAK Parliamentary Group says that the people of Kosovo
firstly want to see people who have worked for achieving peace and stability in
Kosovo, as a mediator. And the US leads in this respect, Dugoli thinks.
Bujar Dugolli: I
think that the US should have the primary role to be that mediator in technical
or practical talks, since they themselves will have the chance to see who is
obstructive, who tries to push the process forward, and who is hindering it.
For this we have always insisted that the US should have the leading role and
the EU countries should also be involved in monitoring these meetings.
According to Nenad Radosavljevic Serbs would
like to see EU having a key role.
Nenad Radosavljevic:
Having in mind all the stormy events in the past ten to fifteen years in
this region, it is in the interest of both sides to include a mediator and in
this case it’ll be the EU. I think that the EU is taking the major role in
leading the talks and will decide the time when the talks will begin.
Although the Serbs believe that the US’s position is
surely the most important political factor, Belgrade still believes the EU is
the final destination of all the countries from this region. However,
K-Albanians are looking directly toward Washington for guidance and support.
Baton Haxhiu, a prominent Kosovo journalist has this to say:
But a minute of
independence for Kosovo and potential ages of European integrations for both
Kosovo and Serbia could happen after, as the most important, two sides become
ready to start a dialogue about vital, everyday problems. Mediators are going
to be chosen, but it seams that both Albanians and Serbs are having problems
deciding who will represent them.
Two major K-Albanian
political parties have different approaches on this matter; LDK stands for
participation of Kosovar institutions while PDK would like to see political
parties around the table. Lulezim Zeneli, a LDK spokesperson says that the
institutions have its legitimacy.
Lulezim Zeneli:
Kosovo institutions have been built based on the vote of people during the last
elections, and in this respect it is the institutions of Kosovo that have the
burden and responsibility to address all the issues in all levels. In this
respect all institutions of Kosovo, namely the presidency, the parliament and
the government have the burden and responsibility for this.
Hajredin Kuqi, PDK media
relations’ officer, finds that the proportional electoral system makes the institutions
more vulnerable. His attitude is that political parties should take part in
talks.
Hajredin Kuqi: We
think that the first meeting has its symbolic importance. In this respect we
need to have in mind that the government of Kosovo and the institutions of
Kosovo are not elected directly by the free votes of the people, but are built
on a political agreement, and this agreement, or signers of this agreement
should be present in these talks. The main reason is because, let us say
somebody from those (parties) does not take part (in the dialogue) they can
withdraw from the political agreement, which implies the institutions will fall
apart. So participants should be those who can create stability in the talks,
and at the same time in the institutions. While institutions themselves are
fragile.
Belgrade, with increasing internal problems that surfaced after the assassination of Republican Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, is finding it hard to deal with it’s own priorities and although Kosovo is not that often mentioned in politician’s statements, Zoran Zivkovic, premier of Serbia told us that Belgrade is ready for talks with Pristina.
Zoran Zivkovic: We
are completely ready for the dialogue. For two and a half years we have been
offering the dialogue to the Kosovo Albanian representatives. And we are ready
for that today as well. I’m not sure that Pristina is ready, but it’s not up to
me to judge it.
In Pristina one can hear essentially the same stance; K-Albanian political leaders are accusing Belgrade for not being ready to sit around the table. So, are the Serbs really ready to start the dialogue, as premier Zivkovic claims? Belgrade till now didn’t come up with a common strategy for Kosovo. It is well known that there are a lot of problems between Belgrade’s envoy for Kosovo Nebojsa Covic and other political representatives of Kosovo Serbs. Just a few days ago, two major Serbian MPs were expelled from Coalition Return. One of them Rada Trajkovic who claims that Covic is trying to take complete control of the Kosovo issue, leaving the Government of Serbia alone as a dumb observer.
Rada Trajkovic: But I don’t think
it’ll happen that all of that is going to be left in the absolute control of
Mr. Covic. I don’t know well the political situation in Belgrade in the sense
of what power is Mr. Covic going to force on his strategy, or whether he’ll
agree to the common strategy. But I’m sure we definitely need to talk with
Premier Zivkovic.
One should also have in mind that both Governments are
going to face elections. Eventually, with strategies or without them, both
sides will start talking. Official Albanian-Serbian dialogue never existed;
there were some attempts and forced political talks but a dialogue, never;
Rambouillet and Paris ended with a war. But as Omer Karabeg stresses that some
sort of talks and contacts always existed between Serbs and Albanians
Omer Karabeg: Representatives of the Kosovar
Government and representatives of Albanian parties and representatives of
Serbian parties and Government met each other on international meetings. I
think that all the time some kind of underground dialogue existed, contacts did
exist. Contacts existed even during the worst situation, during the
bombing!
As it did in the past, civil society is still trying
to influence the process of reconciliation.
But veteran Adem Demaci, who witnessed the failure of civil society in
former Yugoslavia in their effort to stop bloody wars that at the end happened,
is a bit more skeptical, when the real influence of a civil society is in
question:
Adem Demaci: We have a small influence.
However we continue to fight because there is no other way. But we tried the
same way even before the war, before these catastrophes, before all these
tragic events. We talked in the country and outside of the country. We were in
Belgrade. But it all ended completely different, because nobody paid attention
to what we were talking about.
But now time is up and it’s up to the decision makers to
make a move and hopefully a smart one.
Weather it is with or without an international presence to monitor, with
or without all party leaders, the dialogue seems to be on the table ready to
happen soon.
And that was all for this special edition of UNMIK on Air.
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.