Byzantine Blog

Minister Samardzic Elaborates on the Major Achievement: Kosovo Change of Course

“The withdrawal of the new draft resolution which was designed to push Ahtisaari plan through the back door and which would have resulted in the independence of Kosovo province, as well as the UN Security Council decision to assign the Contact Group with the task of organizing new negotiations represent a major success of Serbian politics and diplomacy, thanks to the overwhelming and decisive support by the Russian state policy,” said Serbian Kosovo-Metohija Minister Slobodan Samardzic.

Samardzic reminded that the diplomatic battle within the Security Council against the imposition of such document lasted month and a half, before the decision was reached to withdraw the latest, sixth version of the resolution draft, “with its sponsors resolving to stop pursuing that same course.”

“Taking this type of draft off the agenda has finally eliminated Ahtisaari’s proposal, and the entire endeavor has been foiled,” stressed Kosovo-Metohija Minister at the press conference in Serbian Government.

Contact Group Can’t “Take Over” the Role of UN Security Council

“Our position remains the same: negotiations without crippling conditions. Those Ahtisaari led were unsuccessful and the Contact Group will keep that in mind. The danger of enforcing a predetermined solution and of obstructing the real negotiations, or of making them impossible and trivial, has thus been removed,” said Samardzic.

According to Minister Samardzic, “Serbia is right now facing the positive challenge: preparations for the fair and real negotiations, which will be the precondition to reaching a compromise solution.” He said that the Contact Group won’t have a difficult task, because it is now “clear which sort of things must not be done, what can’t and what should be done.” Samardzic explained that the Contact Group’s task is not to decide the status of the Serbian province, but to arrange the settings and the framework for new negotiations, to contact the parties and make them sit at the negotiating table.

Minister Samardzic clarified that there is no “transfer of power” from Security Council to the Contact Group, as some news agencies seem to believe. He added that there indeed is no Russian (or anybody else’s) veto within the Contact Group, but that is simply because there is no final decision-making within the Contact Group either.

“Whatever the Contact Group agrees upon, and with Belgrade’s and Pristina’s consent, the negotiations will begin, they will be observed by the UN Security Council and the Security Council will reach the final decision in the end. Therefore, there is no ‘transfer’ of power,” explained Samardzic.

Large Maneuvering Space Will be Helpful

He noted as especially useful the fact that the Contact Group will have a large “maneuvering space,” since the Contact Group meetings are not necessarily public, so the members can discuss the issues freely. Neither are their meetings with the negotiating parties always public, which means there will be opportunities to discuss and agree upon the negotiating proposals, about the length of the negotiations and about everything else necessary to create the best conditions to search for the joint solution.

Western Powers Looking for Face-Saving Options

“The only problem right now is that at least two Contact Group member states are obliged to talk to Albanian separatists and tell them they now have to fight for their interests on their own,” noted Samardzic. “Until now, those countries were fighting for the interests of the Albanian separatists, but that will no longer be possible.”

“Now is the time to let the reason prevail and for some states to re-examine their rigid positions, regardless of the big statements by their leaders. Now is the time to step on the path of mutual understanding, compromise and peaceful solutions. No one should expect the big powers to now suddenly admit that Ahtisaari’s plan is really bad, or to suddenly admit all of their own wrong moves. They are aware Ahtisaari did not do his job as he should have, and they are now looking for the face-saving options... of saving both Ahtisaari’s and their own faces,” Samardzic pointed out.

The Unacceptable Package

Regarding the rejection of the sixth US/UK resolution draft, Minister Samardzic explained: “Our side has rejected the latest Security Council resolution because it was a way of imposing through the back door a process that would inevitably end in severing of the Serbian province, since the same plan did not succeed when introduced through the main door, by the adoption of the Ahtisaari plan.”

“As soon as that resolution would have been adopted, the Resolution 1244 which guarantees Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would have been canceled out. According to the proposed new resolution, an EU mission would have replaced the UN mission, and a number of posts currently under the UNMIK authority would have been transfered to the provisional Kosovo [Albanian] institutions. All of that was contained in the package that was to smuggle the Ahtisaari plan through. Therefore, our rejection was based on very rational, pragmatic political reasons, not on spite,” said Samardzic.

Thank You, Russia!

“As soon as we were informed by our ambassador in the UN that the latest resolution draft was withdrawn along with the entire process, Premier Vojislav Kostunica contacted Russian Ambassador in Belgrade, Mr. Alexander Alexeyev to thank him for the principled support of the Russian Federation and to ask him to convey our gratitude to the Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Samardzic told reporters.

Albanians Should Grow Up and Brace for Reality

Suggestion by the Kosovo Albanian provisional leader Agim Ceku that Albanian Muslim separatists would declare independence on Albania’s National Flag day (November 28), according to the Serbian Kosovo-Metohija Minister should have been expected.

“Albanian separatists’ independence plans are not materializing and the possibilities of accomplishing that goal are getting more remote, so their leaders have to offer some hope to their public which lives in complete chaos and utter poverty in Kosovo,” said Samardzic.

“Such statements are also aimed at Albanian separatist sponsors and foreign independence advocates, urging them to fulfill their promises, even giving them a deadline. Ceku wants to signal to the U.S. officials he expects them to fulfill the promises they gave to the Albanian separatists. It’s a whole other question if they can deliver on those promises,” Samardzic said.

“Albanians ought to be advised, even though they don’t listen to us, that they should focus on negotiations, that they will not have the kind of backing they enjoyed during the past 14 months and that Ahtisaari will not steer the talks for them ever again,” warned Kosovo-Metohija Minister.

Slobodan Samardžić [last name pronounced Sah-mahr-jich] PhD, is a Professor at Department of Political Science, Belgrade University, and Political Advisor to the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, now Serbia’s Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. He headed the Serbian government’s committee for decentralization and presided over the state negotiating team on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija province. He is currently the State Minister for Kosovo-Metohija.

Area of Professor Samardzic’s studies includes political ideas and institutions, contemporary federalism, political theory and practice of constitutionalism, political system of Yugoslavia and European Union. His long-term study visits include Göttingen, Frankfurt/M, Fribourg and Brussels. He has published several books: Ideology and Rationalism (1984), Council Democracy (1987), Yugoslavia and the Challenge of Federalism (1990), Coercive Community and Democracy (1994), European Union as a Model of the Supranational Community (1998). Apart from Serbian, he speaks English and German languages and is married, with three children.