Friday, May 13, 2005

Kosovo, Serbia agree on composing lists of displaced persons together

Prishtina [Pristina], 12 May: The chairman of the Prishtina-Belgrade talks on returns, UNHCR's Gotffried Keffner, said that the issue of property will be one of the topics of the working group meetings in the future.

"Both sides highlighted that the issue of property is very important, and that it will be one of the topics that will be discussed in the future meetings," Keffner said following the working group meeting in Belgrade.

Keffner said that the working group will not deal with politics, but with an exclusively humanitarian issue - returning the displaced and seeking the ways to reach the goal of a sustainable return.

"The meetings will deal with mainly practical and technical issues because the parties at the political level agreed that that time has come to move forward and resolve practical issues on returns," he said.

He said that he is encouraged with today's meeting, although he is aware that it will take time.

"The UNHCR is here to provide professional assistance," he said.

KosovaLive learns that Prishtina and Belgrade agreed in today's meeting to compose together a list of displaced persons.

The authorities in Belgrade claim that over 200,000 non-Albanians, mainly Serbs, fled from Kosova since the end of the war.

The Serbian National Council for Kosovo and Metohija have criticized harshly the UN Mission and Kosova government on Tuesday's [10 May] meeting.

"UNMIK and Provisional Institutions of Self-Government have done almost nothing for returning of Serbs and the members of other non-Albanian minorities."

The upcoming meeting will be held in few days in Prishtina.

Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 12 May 05

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