KOSOVO SERB PROTESTERS SAY SERB
MUNICIPALITIES ARE "INDIAN RESERVATIONS"
BBC Monitoring International Reports - February 9, 2007 Friday
Text of report by Serbian radio on 9 February
[Presenter] Several thousand Serbs held a rally in the central town square of
Sumadija in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica to express their protest and
disagreement with Martti Ahtisaari's proposal for resolving the province's
status. The rally passed without any incidents. Here is our correspondent Zeljko
Tvrdisic with the details.
[Tvrdisic] Marko Jaksic, a member of the Serbian Kosovo negotiating team, said
that Ahtisaari's plan contained nothing good for Serbia nor for the Kosovo Serbs
and when the UN envoy claims the opposite he is not telling the truth.
[Jaksic] They want to take away from us our hospitals and our schools and our
system of payment, and they have given everything to them: their constitution,
their anthem, they have given them all our land because they say it must belong
to them. They have allegedly set aside five municipalities for the Serbs. Those
are five Indian reservations. And it means nothing to us even if they gave us 75
municipalities, because in a criminal monster state we do not need anything. The
only thing we need now is Serbia and this is Serbia.
[Tvrdisic] Jaksic called on the Serbs to maintain peace and unity, pointing out
that Kosovo would never become independent as long as Serbia did not give its
consent. Dragisa Milovic, chairman of the Zvecan Municipal Assembly, said that
Ahtisaari wanted to use his plan to seize a part of the internationally
recognized state of Serbia and legalize the fait accompli situation and reward
the Albanians for ethnic cleansing and destroying of churches and monasteries.
[Milovic] They want us to have the status of ethnic minorities, to have all our
links with our country Serbia severed. Are we going to allow that brothers and
sisters? (Crowd shouts: "No"!) Therefore, we want to send a clear message from
this rally saying, as the delegates of the Municipal Assembly of Zvecan have
said, that they reject this proposal, this plan by Mr. Ahtisaari on the solution
to the status of Kosovo and Metohija. We are rejecting this plan because it does
not provide for a compromise, because it does not reflect the interests of the
state of Serbia.
[Tvrdisic] Representatives of students also spoke at the rally, as well as
municipal representatives of Zubin potok and Leposavic, and also Milan Jovanovic,
chairman of the Serb National Council of Northern Kosmet, who reiterated that
Ahtisaari's plan was unacceptable. He announced a protest rally by the Kosovo
Serbs in front of the American Embassy on 27 February and the forming of a
delegation that would visit the leading political structures in Belgrade in the
next few days and demand a united and decisive fight for preserving Kosmet in
Serbia.
Source: Radio Belgrade in Serbian 1400
gmt 9 Feb 07
Copyright 2007 Financial Times Information
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited
KOSOVO SERB PROTESTERS REJECT AHTISAARI PLAN
BBC Monitoring International Reports - February 9, 2007 Friday
Text of report by Serbian TV satellite service on 9 February
[Presenter] At the largest protest rally held to date, more than 10,000 Serbs in
Sumadija Square in northern Kosovska Mitrovica have completely rejected [UN
envoy] Martti Ahtisaari's proposal on the final status of Kosovo-Metohija.
The international community and [ethnic] Albanians were told that the Serb
people will never accept the formation of yet another Albanian state in the
Balkans.
[Reporter Ljiljana Jankovic] Martti Ahtisaari's draft proposal on the future
status of Kosovo-Metohija is unfavourable and absolutely unacceptable for the
Serb people as what Serbs already have is being taken away, the president of the
Association of Serb Municipalities and Communities in Kosovo-Metohija, Marko
Jaksic, said. He recalled that for the first time in history of the United
Nations there is an attempt to take by force part of a territory of a sovereign
state, assessing that Ahtisaari's plan is in fact a US-Albanian one.
Jaksic called on Belgrade officials to display unity, sending the message that
Kosovo-Metohija can never be independent until the Serbian state agrees with
this.
The presidents of the northern Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] municipalities assessed
that Ahtisaari's plan paves the way for the independence of the southern Serbian
province and appealed for the speedy formation of the Serbian Assembly,
government, as well as the negotiating team which will represent the state
interests of Serbia.
A mass Serb protest has been announced for 27 February in front of the US
embassy in Belgrade.
Source: RTS SAT TV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1400 gmt
9 Feb 07
Copyright 2007 Financial Times Information
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited
Posted for Fair Use only.