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Historian Cedomir Antic believes that for Serbia, the Union of Serbian Municipalities is a kind of “fig leaf”, while the executive director of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Izabela Kisic, claims that Belgrade uses the question of the Union of Serbian Municipalities to obstruct the dialogue.
Photo: FoNet / Ognjen StevanovićIn the Kvaka 23 series of the FoNet news agency, Antic compared the concept to the Joint Council of Municipalities that exists in Croatia, which was formed outside of the Croatian Constitution, although it is defined by the internationally recognized Erdut Agreement.
“It exists as a non-governmental organization. As if we created an independent municipality that refers to Vracar, Stari grad and Zvezdara, and now we imagine that we are there as part of a state. We are not. We are a non-governmental organization,” he explained in conversation. with journalist Tamara Skrozza.
At the same time, Kisic believes that the Association of Serbian Municipalities is a mechanism to manipulate the Serbian community, whereby Belgrade, according to her, “constantly maintains in some uncertainty, the fantasy that the Association will have a status similar to the status of the Republika Srpska “.
As he stated for FoNet, “that is impossible, it is contrary to the international vision of a solution and would lead to further dysfunction of Kosovo as a state.”
Kisic noted Pristina’s obligation to implement laws related to the position of minority communities, and said that the Serbian community should insist on that, rather than “accept Belgrade’s manipulation, which actually makes life difficult for ordinary citizens.” .
According to her, the solution is to find a mechanism for the implementation of the agreements already reached, because of 30 of them, which resulted from the previous dialogues, only one has been fully implemented.
Kisic also considers that Kosovo has been independent since 1999 and claims that it is an “acceptable option” for the citizens of Serbia, and that the only ones who oppose it are the right-wing conservative circles in which parts of the Serbian Orthodox Church have the greatest influence.
However, as he says, nobody demands formal recognition of Kosovo by Serbia, but both Serbia and Kosovo are obliged to implement the Brussels accords.
“Serbia must also stop obstructing Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations (UN).” Whether they will formally recognize Kosovo or not does not matter at the moment, “Kisic explained.
On the other hand, Antic believes that the main desire of international negotiators is the mutual recognition of Belgrade and Pristina, which can take various forms.
As he points out, the United States is not as sympathetic to the Kosovo Albanians as it seems at first glance, and at the same time, there are no instruments to pressure Serbia.
For that, according to him, a new US administration should come to power, which would first solve its problems, just as large European countries, such as Germany and France, would have to do.
Antic believes that both parties could still be satisfied with the correction of the borders, which would mean the division of 10% of the territory.
However, he fears that among the Kosovar Albanians, for certain reasons that have nothing to do with independence, there has been such radicalization that there are certain centers that would not accept anything.
“If they were given full independence now, they would attack the people who reached an agreement with Serbia as traitors,” Antic said.
According to him, the mutual relationship between Serbs and Albanians will change over time and major demographic changes will lead to a shift in priorities.
“That identity will be important, it will always be important, as long as there are nations like this. However, the problems that the Balkans will face will be such that they will point them out to each other, ”Antić concluded.
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