Wednesday, March 15, 2017

"Pristina's bid to appropriate Serbian property is illegal"

Pristina (Tanjug, file)
The government in Pristina has decided to register all immovable property previously registered to the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, and AP Kosovo to - Kosovo.

SOURCE: BETA, TANJUG

For this reason, the head of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Djuric, met today in Belgrade with political representatives of Serbs from Kosovo.

Djuric spoke with Serb members of the provincial government, mayors from ten municipalities with a Serb majority, and representatives of the Serb (Srpska) List.

"We will propose that the (Serbian) government, in its next session, annuls this illegal and unconstitutional decision of the interim institutions of self-government in Pristina and the separatist leadership (in Kosovo), as has been done in the case of Trepca (mining complex)," Djuric told reporters after the meeting.

According to Beta, he said that any detrimental, legal or otherwise, consequences to citizens and their property in Kosovo "would be prevented in this way."

According to the website of the Kosovo government, based on a government decision signed by its head, Isa Mustafa, all immovable property registered to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) - that is, the Republic of Serbia and the Autonomous Province (AP) of Kosovo - is being registered to "the Republic of Kosovo" as the owner.

"Illegal, and unacceptable"

Reacting to the news, Serbian First Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said the decision was "completely illegal, and unacceptable."

No serious investor will spend money in Kosovo based on this decision of the government in Pristina - "because they won't know whose property it is in the end," he said on Wednesday afternoon.

These are not rational political moves, but rather the kind made by those who "no longer know what to do."

"This is yet another unilateral move by Pristina that shows they're not interested in the dialogue in Brussels - because we launched this topic multiple times, but they never wanted to discuss it," Dacic told reporters in Belgrade, referring to the EU-sponsored Kosovo negotiations.

This is yet another contentious issue that speaks to Pristina not wanting to assume a constructive approach, he said, and added that Belgrade, on the other hand, "wants the dialogue to continue not only with Pristina, but overall in the region in order to find solutions to all open issues."

"Something else is troubling Pristina - that is, there must be great fear and problems among them," he continued.

"Whether this fear has to do with the dissipating political support, with the failures in the international arena, or with what the new specialist court (for KLA crimes) will say when it comes to indictments - now, that's another question," Dacic said.

Pristina's decision to usurp Serbia's property "has no basis in any kind of agreement or deal, and is absolutely unacceptable to Serbia, and detrimental," he added.

According to Dacic, the West "does not support the formation of an army of Kosovo the way Pristina does."

"I don't want to say they don't support it, but they don't support setting it up in an unconstitutional manner. For years we have been warning about that, while opposing an army (in Kosovo), and we remain in the same position," Dacic concluded.

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