Thursday, September 07, 2006

Kosovo parliament criticizes negotiating team's decentralization plan

Prishtina [Pristina], 6 September: Kosova [Kosovo] lawmakers and the representatives of the negotiating team [NT] reconfirmed today that there will be no passing of the Kosova final status documents without "the permission" of the Kosova assembly.

During today's parliamentary session, Kosovar MPs have criticized the negotiating team and the strategic political team for lack of cooperation and transparency.

Parliament Speaker and member of the NT Kole Berisha admitted that during the last period there has been lack of cooperation between the NT and the parliament.

"The UT did not sell Kosova and it will not sell it. It did not do any bargain or sign anything. The first document handed over to [Martti] Ahtisaari reads that there will be no partial agreement without the final agreement on independence," said Berisha.

Berisha said that the status issue has not been discussed so far during the status talks.

He said that what supports the idea of independence is the statement of the Contact Group that there will be no return to the 1999 state, no union with another state and no partition of Kosova's territory.

The MP from the Party of Justice, Ferid Agani, accused the NT of lack of transparency. He said that MPs received more information from media rather than from the NT.

Rame Buja from the Democratic Party of Kosova [PDK] and a member of the parliament presidency evaluates decentralization as a classical form of creating enclaves, which leads towards the establishment of small states within Kosova.

Former Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi evaluated as a mistake the idea of partition of the town of Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica] into two ethnic municipalities. He believed that this leads towards the disintegration of the town.

Deputy Prime Minister Lutfi Haziri described the creation of new municipalities and their future competencies. He said that all minorities, except Serbs, have already accepted the decentralization as an internal process.

Haziri said that the NT has guaranteed four legal competencies, such as economic development, education, healthcare, and property management, whereas police will be a uniform issue for the entire Kosova.

Source: KosovaLive website, Pristina, in English 6 Sep 06

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