"Property in Kosovo should be topic during dialogue"

Source: B92, Beta, Tanjug

BELGRADE -- During the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Trepca should not be a topic - instead, Serbia's property in Kosovo and Metohija should be discussed, says an official.

(Tanjug, file)

"I think the topic should not be Trepca but the property of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija. Trepca is not the only public company. There is Skijalista (Ski Resorts), there is a large part of assets of Telekom, Post of Serbia, NIS," said Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Veljko Odalovic.
He told RTS that Serbia is still repaying international debts for property that it does not manage or exercise ownership over.

Odalovic said the case of Trepca was "an attempt to seize an institution," but that representatives of international institutions with which the government of Serbia talked "showed a high degree of understanding for this topic."

"The international community has recognized that this topic should be treated differently," said Odalovic.

He then added that "it should be seen what the part of Trepca that remained in the southern (ethnic Albanian) part of Kosovska Mitrovica looks like."

"Where there were Kosovo institutions, it is collapsed, abandoned, destroyed. Where there is Serbia in the north, everything works," he said.

The Kosovo Assembly adopted draft amendments to the law on enterprises of special importance during a session on Monday. Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa proposed during the extraordinary session that a separate law be adopted for the mining complex.

The changes to the law adopted yesterday do not concern ownership issues when it comes to the mining comple, postponing instead for two years the deadline for regulating the company's debt of some EUR 1.4, "thus avoiding its liquidation."

Pristina's original intention was to on Monday pass a law that would allow it to take ownership of Trepca, which caused strong reactions from the Serbian government.