Global Courant
The only point that was said to have been agreed upon in Brussels by the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, is the holding of early elections in the four municipalities with a Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo: North Mitrovica, Zvecan , Zubin Potok and Leposavic.
The two leaders held separate meetings with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on June 22.
“The meeting focused not so much on what, but on how and when,” said Borrell.
The EU and the rest of the international community have long been asking the Government of Kosovo to escalate the situation in the north.
This area became tense as early as the end of May, when the Albanian mayors of the Zveçan, Zubin Potok and Leposaviq municipalities entered the municipal facilities, despite the protests of the Serbian residents.
These facilities are also used by parallel Serbian authorities, while only in North Mitrovica, the municipality of Kosovo is separated from the one that functions under the Serbian system.
The protests culminated in violence on May 29 in Zveçan, where dozens of members of the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, and dozens of protesters were injured.
From that time, the Kosovo Police arrested several Serbs suspected of acts of violence against police forces, KFOR members and journalists in the north.
The April elections, from which the Albanian presidents emerged, were boycotted by the Serbian community and its political representatives.
New elections and the participation of Serbs in them are now seen as a solution.
What did the EU ask for?
There are three main requirements that, according to the European Union, the Government of Kosovo must accept “as soon as possible”.
One of them is the announcement of early elections in the north of the country.
Kurti agreed with this, but on the condition that they are “legal elections”.
“Early elections cannot be held outside the law. As the law in Kosovo provides – let’s take it, with the signatures of the citizens, who collect them through a petition, to finish the mandate of a mayor. This is a solution within the law”, Kurti said after the meeting with Borrell in Brussels.
In a press conference the same day, the largest party of Kosovo Serbs, Lista Serbe, called for the “resignation of the Albanian mayors” as a path that could lead to new elections.
Earlier, Kurti said that he has no right to ask the elected presidents to resign, because it is a moral act.
In a statement for Radio Free Europe, Izmir Zeqiri, the current chairman of Zubin Potok, said that he is not thinking about elections, even though they are being mentioned.
“As resignation, why resignation? It’s just that it’s up to someone to tell me to resign, I’ll resign, huh?”, said Zeqiri.
“We see the legal ways, we don’t think about the elections. Once we are working, we will work as much as we can”, he said.
The other mayors of the northern municipalities were not available for comment on this matter.
Borrell also said that he asked Kurti to withdraw the special units of the Kosovo Police from the areas around the municipal facilities, where they are currently located.
Kurti answered by saying: “The police are not near the buildings, but they are inside the buildings.”
“Their presence is not desirable for us, but it is mandatory, given the violent extremists who have shot at KFOR soldiers, Kosovo police and journalists,” said Kurti.
Borrell said that he has asked Kurti that the elected Albanian mayors work temporarily in alternative buildings, not in municipal ones.
Currently, the mayor of North Mitrovica, Erden Atiç, is working inside the municipal facility, as is Lulzim Hetemi of Leposaviç.
“We reminded Mr. Borrell and Mr. Lajçak (representative of the EU in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue) that the biggest violence that happened happened in Zveçan, where the mayor was not in the office,” Kurti said. repeating that the mayors should work from their offices.
In order to escalate the situation in the north, Borrell said that he has also submitted some requests to the president of Serbia, Vucic.
One of them is for the protesters to be withdrawn from the municipal buildings in the north, at the same time as the special units of the Kosovo Police are withdrawn.
Serbia was also asked to release three Kosovo police officers, arrested by Serbian forces on June 14, “immediately and unconditionally”.
In Serbia, they are suspected of “carrying weapons without a permit”, while in Kosovo they believe that they were arrested as a sign of revenge for the arrests in the north.
In a press conference after the meeting in Brussels, Vucic did not respond to any of these requests.
“We will continue to talk on a daily basis, because peace and stability are key, but I warned that the Serbs (in Kosovo) are in a very difficult position and that they do not want to endure Kurti’s terror in the way that they have been forced to endure until this moment”, said Vucic.
What did the Serbian List say?
The chairman of the Serbian List, Goran Rakič, described several steps that, according to him, must be taken before this party agrees to participate in the elections.
As a main step, he mentioned the withdrawal of the special unit of the Kosovo Police from the north. The security vacuum that would be created by this, according to him, would have to be filled by KFOR and the EU mission for the rule of law in Kosovo, EULEX.
The second request, according to him, is amnesty for all Serbs arrested in the last two or three years – whether for participation in barricades or in various protests against the decisions of the Government of Kosovo.
Most of these detainees are accused of “violation of the constitutional order”.
“We do not demand the release of criminals, we demand amnesty for the arrested persons who participated in protests or barricades. This is something that is applied everywhere in the world, where there are crisis areas”, said Rakič.
And, as a “condition above all conditions”, he mentioned the “beginning” of the formation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority.
For this association, Kosovo and Serbia have agreed since 2013, but the agreement has never been implemented. Official Pristina has repeatedly said that his broad powers would endanger the internal functionality of the state.
Radio Free Europe asked the Serbian List if it would accept any compromise solution for holding new elections in the north, but, until the publication of this text, did not receive an answer.
The Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia did not answer this question either./REL
Global Courantl
