Thursday, August 11, 2005

If Plan B fails, Kosovo leaders may be "forced" to sign Serbian plan - minister

Text of report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive

Prishtina [Pristina], 11 August: Local Self-administration Minister Lutfi Haziri said that if the version B of the government decentralization plan is not implemented, then there is a fear that political leaders may be forced to sign Kostunica's plan.

Minister Haziri said that the new version has been handed out to the Serb representatives of Kosova [Kosovo], adding that the Kosova government has done for Serbs more than anyone else within the principle of "positive discrimination".

Self-administration Minister Lutfi Haziri made these comments yesterday during a press meeting held in a cafeteria in Prishtina, where he, amongst others, talked about the decentralization process, about its obstacles and the government's efforts for a successful implementation of pilot municipalities, all intended for Kai Eide's positive report.

Speaking on the version B of the decentralization plan, Minister Haziri said that this is going to be the last version. Rejecting the existence of any other versions, Haziri said that "if this version is not implemented then I fear that during negotiations, political leaders may be forced to sign Kostunica's plan".

Haziri said that the key factor for a successful implementation of decentralization is census.

Responding to a question on what the reaction of the Contact Group would be to the delay of pilot projects implementation and modification of the first version, Haziri said that the Contact Group has no right to criticize because the government does not deserve them.

Whereas, in case of a negative report from Kai Eide, Haziri said that "government cannot get out of its schedule".

Haziri also said that the government has done a lot for local Serbs. According to him, Version B of the decentralization plan has been handed over to the Kosova Serb leaders two weeks ago and he expects from them to give their opinion on whether they will accept this plan or not.

"I explained everything to Oliver Ivanovic for half an hour but on the other hand the government will have no-one on its back," said Haziri.

Speaking on the new version of pilot projects, Haziri said that the problem has been easily solved in Hani i Elezit [Djeneral Jankovic] because of the good cooperation that exists there between the political parties, whereas this did not happen with Serbs in Gracanice [Gracanica] or Partesh [Partes].

According to Haziri, it is still unknown which cadastral units will be included within one municipality, adding also that he is not sure if Serb demands for Llapnaselle [Laplje Selo] and Cagllavice [Caglavica] to be included within the municipality of Gracanica will be fulfilled.

"Belgrade continues to have its impact in Gracanice. Serbs want the control over all the places in which they represent majority," said Haziri.

Responding to the question on how many municipalities will Kosova have, Minister Haziri said that "30 municipalities are not enough for Kosova, but 70 are too many".

Minister Haziri also explained that based on a research, some 70 per cent of Kosovar citizens are not informed on the pilot projects. He put the blame for this on the former Public Services Minister Jakup Krasniqi and Prime Minister Rexhepi.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its time for our medias and our governament to show the world this "positive discrimination" and how much the Serbs are benefiting from all sides. Soon it will backfire for the Serbs, they are being spoiled a lot.

Anonymous said...

It is a good way to play the game for anyone in that situation.. Ask
for EVERYTHING---then when you of
course don't get it ALL, you have a
wonderful excuse to make more trouble.. Take everything you DO
get, then demand even more.. It is
not the way to live in peace with
your neighbors, but it certainly is
a wonderful way to make trouble for
many, many years.. But, there are usually a lot of people on all sides who are happy to throw gasoline on a fire..