HELSINKI FILES No. 26

Moving Towards a Sustainable Society in Kosovo

Prepared by Izabela Kisić

The edition "Moving Towards a Sustainable Society in Kosovo" provides insight into the activities the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia realized under the project of the same name. Serbia's policymakers have managed to prolong the resolution of the Kosovo status for more than a year and thus fuel the regional vulnerability. Encouraged by Russia's support and its embargo on the UN Security Council resolution that could have laid the foundations for Kosovo's future status, the official Belgrade has been toughening nationalistic rhetoric and focusing on Kosovo as the top priority of the agenda of national interest.

Such an attitude has turned the relations between Albanian and Serb communities in Kosovo even more delicate. For, the drawn-out status debate has overshadowed key issues of the Kosovo society, economy and interethnic relations between Albanians and Serbs and other minority communities.

Two panel discussions, "Activities in Kosovo" and "Framed Trials of Kosovo Albanians," the Helsinki Committee organized with the assistance of partner organizations from Pristine probably best testify of the need for interethnic dialogue. This edition carries integral proceedings of those gatherings.

The workshops - described in this edition - one in the Serb enclave of Plemetina and another in Pristine bringing together Serb and Albanian women are also illustrative of Belgrade's attempt to choke any rapprochement between Serbs and Albanians and of such policy's detrimental effects on Kosovo Serbs.

The rhetoric of confrontation and the emotion-fueled delusion that Kosovo would remain a part of Serbia have dominated Serbia's political and social scene for the past twelve months. This is why this edition also brings to the public eye relevant discussions in the Serbian parliament, the text of the "Resolution on the Need for Just Solution of the Question of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo Based on International Law" that was unanimously adopted in late July 2007, as well as major Kosovo-related addresses by highest state officials. However, Serbia does have a political alternative to such mainstream: the Liberal Democratic Party /LDP/, which entered the parliament following the January 2007 elections. The LDP alternative document on Kosovo, submitted for the parliamentary consideration, is also presented in this edition.

Last but not least, some illustrative commentaries, run in the Committee's magazine The Helsinki Charter - scrutinizing Kosovo developments along with other key issues of Serbia's modernization and Europeanization - are here available to readers as condensed reading matter.

For the time being this book is available in Serbian only. The Helsinki Committee hopes to publish it in English as well soon.