Serbs in north "to work to implement agreement"

Source: B92, Tanjug

BELGRADE -- Representatives of Serbs from northern Kosovo met with Boris Tadić in Belgrade late on Sunday and agreed to work to implement the agreement reached with KFOR.

Radenko Nedeljković (Tanjug)

A statement from the president's cabinet said that the meeting concluded that the northern part of the province needed peace and unity above all else, and that international institutions there - KFOR and EULEX - "must remain status-neutral".

Kosovska Mitrovica District chief Radenko Nedeljković told reporters after the meeting with Tadić that northern Serbs informed him about the security in the north of the province and "communicated to him that they insisted on a strict adherence to UN Security Council Resolution 1244".

Nedeljković said it was agreed to continue cooperation with the international community, that the Serb representatives were told they had full cooperation and support of the institutions of Serbia, and that local representatives will work with top state officials to solve problems in the north.

Nedeljković said that the three-hour meeting with Tadić also touched on other obligations stemming from the temporary agreement the government reached with KFOR last week, in a bid to defuse the crisis which broke out when Kosovo Albanian authorities on July 15 tried to take over two administrative line checkpoints in the Serb north.

However, Nedeljković was did not say whether all three barricades that Serbs put up since, blocking roads in the north, will be removed, saying that undisturbed traffic and freedom of movement will "certainly be secured", and mentioned the Rudare barricade as "the only problem".

Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović who was also present at the meeting held at the presidency building in Belgrade said he believed that Serbs from northern Kosovo would remove the barricades because their representatives said they supported the deal reached between the government and KFOR, and called on the local authorities to decide on this issue "with cool heads and without emotions".