UNMIK on Air

Helsinki Committee Conference

By Blagoje Grujic

Hello and welcome. This is UNMIK on Air programme,

On the eve of standards implementation assessment in Kosovo, and preparation for final status talks, The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia had organized the conference named “Future Status of Kosovo”.

The two days conference that took place in Pristina is a follow up of the series of panel discussions that have been held over past months in Kosovo.

The Chairperson of The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Sonja Biserko, points out that this conference aimed to mobilize local leaders in all levels to get involved in resolving such an important issue, as it is the final status of Kosovo.

Actuality No. 1 Sonja Biserko47.52. We are here also to remove the blockade, which lasts for a decade and a half; to open another channel for dialog with alternative structures in Serbia and somehow to start a dialog on a social level. That is by my opinion, the most precious outcome of this project is to show that people from both sides can talk to each other normally, and in a relaxed atmosphere.

The conference proceeded in five panels, dealing with issues of minorities, decentralization, Post-Conflict Rehabilitation, and Kosovos’ final status.

The list of speakers included university professors, party leaders, and officials from Pristina and Belgrade, also others from ex-Yugoslavian republics.

Zarko Korac former deputy PM of Serbia, talking about preconditions for reconciliation underlined that critical attitude towards the past is indispensable.

Actuality No. 2 Zarko Korac 24.20 (edit to) Reconciliation is hard to achieve if some men in one community are seen as heroes and at the same time as criminals in another (community). Second, I was talking about problems in educational system, in which there are books that members of other ethnic community are shown in a very negative way, and entire history of relations with that community is presented as one everlasting war in which you win or loose at the time.

Standards that govern relations within one community are of immense importance for relations with other communities. According to Latinka Perovic, historian from Belgrade, agreement between Albanian and Serbian community could be reached only by achieving the modern society standards.

Actuality No. 3 Latinka Perovic 57.15 Serbian society cannot be a society of just one idea, one goal; it has to have its alternatives. That goes for Kosovo society too, which is society pressured by poverty, a society that seeks its place in the region, and it has to define its status. But it has to define it in accord with standards obliged not only for them, but also for any modern society, for any prosper society in Europe.

On a more practical side, politicians on both sides are faced with the fact that the dialogue between former foes has still to begin. The modalities and mechanisms of which are perceived differently by the sides.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi, one of participants of the conference puts his focus on existing working groups.

Actuality No. 4 Kosumi Dialogue has started and there are working groups discussing. Me personally and the government are interested that those WG should give results. Some of them showed concrete results and I am ready to meet in specific circumstances with my homologues.

Some of Kosovo Serb representatives like Randjel Nojkic, Kosovo’s Assembly member, praised the conference but had objections on Belgrade guests’ presentations from speakers from Belgrade.

Actuality No. 5 Randjel Nojkic 34.25 (edit to) I think that they should have spend more time with Kosovo Serbs representatives, to let them say their facts, their problems and reasons, and then base on those facts to form the picture.

On the other hand, Zarko Korac is aware that the reconciliation and resolution of final status for Kosovo is a long-term process, which will have to be conducted on more official level.

In this very important year for Kosovo every effort contributing to solving the problems in peaceful manner is of great help.

This conference in Pristina has showed that dialog has no alternative and that all sides have to work hard together for the benefit of all.

Thank you for listening to today’s story from the studios of UNMIK ON AIR. Tomorrow we’ll have our weekly week in review.

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