Pristina "cannot make ZSO conditional on other agreements"

Pristina "cannot make the creation of the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) conditional."

SOURCE: TANJUG FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016 | 09:10
 

This was announced by the Serbian Government's Office for Kosovo, which added: "Especially not on telecommunications, whose implementation had been hampered by Pristina's unconstructive approach."

Previously, Edita Tahiri, who serves in the Kosovo government, said that the ZSO will not be set up before Kosovo receives a dial code.

"Besides being insincere and unconstructive, with moves like this one, the politics pursued by Pristina are also becoming completely meaningless," the office's deputy director, Dusan Kozarev, said.

A statement added that the agreement on telecommunications has not been implemented because Pristina has not created the conditions for the operation of a company of the MTS operator in Kosovo and Metohija.

"Once this has happened, Kosovo will, as agreed, receive another dial code for a territorial area within Serbia," he added, noting that telephone traffic between central Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija will then be taking place without the use of dialing codes, and under local tariffs.

"All Mrs. Tahir has to do is read the agreement she signed, and implement it," Kozarev noted.

"All this, of course, has nothing to do with the undertaking to create the conditions for setting up the ZSO," Kozarev said, adding:

"To us, the setting up of the Community of Serb Municipalities is the main reason to participate in the dialogue, and the deadline for drafting its charter was December 25 last year. When the Community of Serb municipalities is established, its Secretariat will, precisely in accordance with the agreement on telecommunications, be available on +381 dialing code," the statement said.

Kozarev further stated that if Pristina does not want normalization of relations and dialogue with Belgrade, "it should announce this clearly - instead of lying and deceiving the domestic public on a daily basis, guided by election campaign, internal political reasons," and added that the EU, as the mediator in the dialogue, is likely already tired from the behavior of Pristina politicians - "but we expect they will take steps to remove absurdity from this process, that has already become chronic."