Building Berlin Wall in Serbia
West seems to be suffering from a Berlin Wall nostalgia — they are now trying to build a new one in Serbia.
Negotiating Process Must be Conducted Within the Resolution 1244
According to Tanjug, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who is also Serbian State Negotiating Team Co-Chairman, has announced he will participate in the talks in the ongoing negotiating process on the future organization of Kosovo and Metohija scheduled for November 5 in Vienna.
“This will be an important meeting, because Serbia will insist on a clear definition of the negotiating process which must be conducted within the framework of the Resolution 1244. This means that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia must be respected and essential autonomy for the Albanian national minority in the Province guaranteed,” Kostunica told Tanjug.
Ischinger’s Suggestion will be Resolutely Rejected
The prime minister stressed that it was clear Serbia will resolutely reject the new proposal in case the EU representative in the mediation Troika Wolfgang Ischinger suggests on November 5 to organize Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province according to the model of two former German states.
“There isn’t a single letter about the independence for the Province in the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, just as there is no mention of a model that in 1972 existed between the two German states. Thereby, in keeping with Resolution 1244, such a suggestion cannot in any way be the subject of talks,” the Serbian prime minister said.
German Mediator Wants to Build Berlin Wall in Serbia
Earlier, based on its diplomatic sources, Tanjug reported that EU representative in the Contact Group negotiation Troika Wolfgang Ischinger has proposed to the Troika that Serbia and Serbian southern province of Kosovo should arrange relations as two states, in the way East and West Germany did under the 1972 Berlin Agreement.
Ischinger has thus practically formalized his idea, referring to the Berlin agreement, which is something Tanjug’s diplomatic sources had indicated last week.
The aim of the Berlin agreement was to establish good neighborly relations of the two German states and guarantee de facto, but not de jure, recognition of East Germany.
By promotion of the German 1972 example, diplomats indicated, Ischinger obviously has in mind the Pristina separatists’ “offer on good neighborly relations of two independent states,” presented within the talks on the future status of Serbia’s southern province, and certainly not Serbia’s refusal to split its own state.
Serbia Can Never Accept Anything Similar
The problem with Ischinger’s possible historic example, as evaluated by diplomats, is in fact the inappropriate comparison, because in the German case there were two separate states which looked for ways of upgrading coexistence, while the current Kosovo-Metohija issue is completely opposite and boils down to the efforts to divide a sovereign state by force.
“If this information is correct, I can only say that Serbia can never accept a document with such or any similar content,” Serbian Kosovo-Metohija Minister Slobodan Samardzic told Tanjug. He added that Belgrade doubts the veracity of the information, as well as the possibility of negotiating Troika offering such a suggestion.
“We Would be Very Surprised...”
“Therefore, we do not expect that to happen, because that would mean we would be offered to recognize our own province as an independent state,” said Samardzic.
He reminded that the Berlin agreement signed in 1972 had a practical purpose for two German states to recognize each other, while the document itself designated each as a sovereign state with their own territorial integrity.
“Kosovo-Metohija is an entirely different case. It is a province within Serbian state, currently under the international administration of the United Nations and its status will be determined during the negotiations within the framework of the Resolution 1244,” Kosovo Minister stressed.
Samardzic added that the framework of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 “does not allow for a creation of an agreement similar to the one signed between the two German states in 1972 and we would be very surprised if anyone from the mediating Troika were to suggest anything of the kind.”