Source: Beta, Tanjug, Sputnik
(Tanjug, file)
According to him, Kosovo Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, while explaining Pristina's request to join UNESCO, "in effect acknowledged the ethnic cleansing" when said that the idea was not endorsed "only by the Orthodox (Christian Serb) community, which makes up four percent of the population in Kosovo."
"Serbia has extended a hand of reconciliation and that hand is hanging in the air - but we have not raised both our hands in surrender," Dacic told a UN Security Council session dedicated to Kosovo.
We will see how each country will vote in UNESCO, he said, adding that Serbia cannot allow Kosovo's membership in UN organizations through the back door.
"Either abolish resolution 1244 or don't apply double standards toward Serbia," was Dacic's message at the UN Security Council.
"It must be that this world is governed by principles. It cannot be that Serbia, as the OSCE chairman, is expected to defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine - and not defend its own territorial integrity with the same force. Serbia is in favor of dialogue, but we believe our own eyes, not the claims that are often, in the case of Serbia, an example of double standards," he added.
Dacic said that "a territory administered by the United Nations under valid and mandatory Security Council resolution 1244, Kosovo is not and cannot be considered a state as a subject of international law and cannot, ipso facto, qualify for admission to organizations like the ones referred to."
"We will fight for our interests, politically and diplomatically. We'll see how each state will vote on Pristina's request for membership in UNESCO. We need to stop playing under the table and begin to play openly. Serbia will not participate in the attempts to allow Kosovo to enter specialized UN agencies through the back door," Dacic said.
According to him, "in that sense, each and every different attitude to the consideration of the question of Kosovo’s membership in these organizations would be tantamount to ignoring, i.e. violating, the legal rules created under the auspices of the United Nations for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security "If and when the time comes, questions of this kind should be the subject of dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade."
Stressing that Serbia "condemns any desecration of religious sites of any religion," Dacic pointed out that the destruction of cultural and religious heritage in the Middle East by Islamic State (IS) is being met with strong condemnation across the world as an act of terrorism - and added, in reference to Kosovo's authorities, that "those who desecrate and destroy the Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo demand membership in UNESCO, "and a pat on the shoulder as an act of reward."
Dacic also warned about "the drastic discrepancy between the declarative commitment and the actual conduct of Pristina" on the issue of the protection of the Serbian cultural heritage:
"You will agree that someone who aspires to membership in UNESCO must, not only with words but also with deeds, confirm their commitment to the objectives and principles of the Constitution of UNESCO - with which the deliberate, systematic, vandal destruction of cultural and historical monuments of their fellow citizens, in order to eliminate the traces of centuries of existence of a people in an area, as well as the impunity got perpetrators of such barbaric acts unworthy of the 21st century - are undoubtedly irreconcilable."
The Serbian minister then told the UN Security Council that "from June 1999 until today 236 churches, monasteries and other buildings owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC, in Kosovo) as well as cultural and historical monuments, have been the target of attacks."
Of these, as many as 61 have the status of cultural monuments, "and 18 are of great importance for the state of Serbia."
"In the area of Kosovo and Metohija 174 religious sites and 33 cultural and historical monuments have been destroyed, more than 10,000 icons, religious, liturgical, and artistic items stolen. 5,261 headstones have been either destroyed or damaged in 256 Serbian Orthodox cemeteries - and not a single whole tombstone stands on more than 50 of the graveyards," said Dacic.
He pointed out that the attacks on the Serb heritage in Kosovo in this regard represent attacks on the Serb identity, have a direct impact on their sense of acceptance in the local community and are a part of the process of "changing historical facts in order to marginalize and eliminate Serbs and Serbia from the history of Kosovo and Metohija."
During the UN Security Council session, Dacic presented images of the destroyed Serbian cultural heritage. Click here to download them - via the Serbian government website
The foreign minister went on to say that Belgrade "received information that EULEX (EU mission in Kosovo) is preparing to transfer the cases and the accompanying documentation processed by EULEX prosecutors and judges to the PISG, i.e. the local judiciary."
"About 500 cases are involved, about 300 of them related to war crimes, out of which 270 have been taken over from UNMIK (UN mission in Kosovo). The government of the Republic of Serbia expresses its concern at the intention to transfer the cases related to war crimes in the territory of Kosovo to the local judiciary since all of them belong to the exclusive competence of EULEX even after the amendment of the PISG regulations on the mandate of the EU Mission relating to the rule of law in the province. In point of fact, it is provided that EULEX prosecutors continue to process the cases in respect of which they decided to launch an investigation prior to April 15, 2014, as well as the cases allocated to EULEX prosecutors before this date which include the cases of war crimes that EULEX took over from the UNMIK judiciary," Dacic said, and added:
"If EULEX does proceed and transfer the cases to the institutions in Pristina, in particular the sensitive cases of the investigation of the war crimes committed in the territory of Kosovo, the consequences for processing the war crimes committed by the KLA against the Serbs, non-Albanians and Albanians, marked ‘Serbian collaborators’ during the armed conflicts of 1998 and 1999 would be unforeseeable."
"Since it is expected that a Specialist Court will be established soon to try the war crimes committed by the KLA in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, and it is being established precisely for the incapacity of the local Kosovo judiciary to investigate and try the perpetrators of war crimes from the ranks of the KLA, let me point out that the transfer of the war crimes cases to the local judiciary by EULEX runs counter to the activities of the international community aimed at establishing the Specialist Court," the foreign minister told the UN Security Council, and added:
"If the said cases were to be transferred to the local judiciary, there is reason to believe that much of material evidence and many witnesses would be removed or intimidated, which would make the work of the future Specialist Court for war crimes much more difficult. Politically motivated arrests and long trials, as well as the different yardsticks of the local judiciary should not be disregarded, either. One example of which I already spoke at the previous meetings of the Security Council is the case of Oliver Ivanovic, the leader of the Civil Initiative 'Serbia, Democracy, Justice', who was detained at the end of January 2014 and continues in detention regardless of the guarantees and calls of the Government of Serbia that he be granted bail. In an effort to win this right, Oliver Ivanovic has been on hunger strike for days now."
Dacic also told the UNSC that the Serbian government "attaches particular importance to finding solutions for internally displaced persons while the creation of conditions for their sustainable return is one of the key segments of the reconciliation process."
"Out of over 220,000 people who fled Kosovo since 1999, in the last 16 years sustainable return has been achieved only by 1.9 percent, while around 204,000 persons sill remain displaced in Serbia. Accordingly, the percentage of sustainable return in this case is below all international standards and averages," said the minister.
Dacic also pointed to the tendency of privatization of public companies in areas with a majority Serb population, "leading us to the conclusion that the basic motivation of these privatizations, the ethnic connotation of which is very transparent indeed, is the destruction of economic resources exactly in the Serbian communities which is incompatible with democratic achievements and European standards."
"We are deeply concerned over the Draft Law on the Kosovo Property Comparison and Verification Agency which is under consideration in the Parliament of Kosovo and is in outright contravention of the 2011 Technical Agreement on Cadastre. It creates conditions for the legalization of the property expropriated unlawfully from the Serbs, whereby enormous and irreparable damage would be created to the Serbian community in the Province. It is exactly with this in mind that we requested that the procedure of the adoption of the said Law be stopped and that the Technical Agreement on Cadastre, providing for the establishment of a body consisting of representatives of Belgrade, Pristina and the European Union to carry out the comparison of cadastral documentation, begin to be implemented," Dacic said.
The UN Security Council session was held on Friday in New York to consider the UN secretary-general's regular report on the work of the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.
(Tanjug/Serbian MFA)
"I heard harsh words from Dacic. I understand that he is in an election campaign, but dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina continues. Next week we will meet in Brussels and I hope we can agree on important deals - on telecommunications, energy, the Community of Serb Municipalities (SZO)," said Thaci.
Commenting on Dacic's address to the Council, Thaci asserted that "Albanians have always been the majority in Kosovo" and that Dacic "must realize that the Serbian administration, the army and the police will never return."
"Your dream is over once and for all. If you start a war, you will lose," he said.
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