Tuesday, July 04, 2006

South Serbia Albanian leader seeks "correlation" with status of Kosovo Serbs

Text of report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive

Prishtina [Pristina], 4 July: At the time when Kosova [Kosovo] status talks are being intensified, the representatives of the Albanians in the Presheve [Presevo] Valley reconfirm their stance that their status must be solved in correlation with the status of the Serbs living in the northern part of Kosova. In case that this does not happen, they did not exclude the possibility of an armed conflict.

Jonuz Musliu, the head of the Movement for Democratic Progress [LPD] and former representatives of the Liberation Army of Presheve, Medvedja and Bujanovac told KosovaLive [UCPMB] that it is natural that every movement in Kosova reflects in the Presheve Valley.

He said that in 2001 they fought to join Kosova, and that the international community must understand that this is an inalienable right of the Albanians.

"Every other decision which is against the will of the Albanians would be a wrong decision and would destabilize the region. Therefore the international community should not allow double standards for the status of the Kosova Serbs and the status of Albanians in the Presheve Valley," said Musliu.

On the other hand, the International Crisis Group [ICG] released a report announcing that there is a possibility of the escalation of the situation in the Presheve Valley, in case that the international community does not intervene there. The ICG has called on for the demilitarization of the region and implementation of the peace agreement.

Source: KosovaLive website, Pristina, in English 4 Jul 06

2 comments:

Wim Roffel said...

Just imagine that a Serb from Kosovo would say that they have an "inalienable right" to autonomy and "in case that this does not happen, they did not exclude the possibility of an armed conflict".

Double standards?

Bg anon said...

anyc its fair to say that Belgrade will try to play up attacks on Serbs. The solution then is to take that away from Belgrade by and condemning every real attack on Kosovo Serbs and ensuring they dont happen.

But its also fair to say that UNMIK plays down statistics showing attacks on Serbs for reasons I think are probably clear to you already - not irrational reasons but organisational and logical.

The fact that Serbs will try to play up incidents isnt evidence of Milosevic tactics. That graces Milosevic with far too much importance. Those are the tactics of self interest that have been adopted throughout history when an apparant benefit can be brought from exaggeration.

This is no revelation to anybody - we all knew that anyway.