Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Organizes the Conference
"Kosovo Status and Standards: Towards Assuring
Regional Security and Stability"
06/16/2006 , HCHRS
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights organized the
conference under the title "Kosovo Status and Standards: Towards
Assuring Regional Security and Stability" on June 5-6, 2006 in the
Belgrade Intercontinental Hotel. It were the King Baudouin Foundation
and the Fund for an Open Society, Belgrade, that supported this major
gathering under the project "Belgrade-Prishtina: Steps to Build
Confidence and Understanding - A Follow-up Conference."
This fifth in the series of dialogues that have been
assembling intellectuals, NGO activists and politicians from Serbia and
Kosovo since 1998 mostly focused the issues such as the position of
Kosovo minorities, the situation in Kosovska Mitrovica and the
possibilities for overcoming the town's division.
Over 60 participants from Serbia and Kosovo presented
their views and analyses of the current situation in Kosovo. They
particularly broached the status and position of minorities as
preconditions for the development of Kosovo's democratic potential to
which the solution of the Kosovska Mitrovica problem will be the litmus
test. In his capacity as a panelist in the conference, lawyer Azem
Vllasi underlined that all political parties in Kosovo should be aware
that independent Kosovo would be recognized as a democratic state and
law-abiding community only if it guaranteed full respect for the rights
of all ethnic groups and minorities. "Serbia's authorities engaged in
the negotiating process should not appeal to the Kosovo Serbs to refrain
from participating in local institutions and thus fuel their hopes that
Kosovo would return under Belgrade's jurisdiction," said Vllasi.
Dissecting the official Belgrade's role in Kosovo so far, Cedomir
Jovanovic, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, said that
Belgrade-Prishtina partnership was the key prerequisite to
reconciliation of all nations in Kosovo and its democratic prospects.
Chairwoman of the Helsinki Committee Sonja Biserko
expressed her fears that well-known methods would continue to obstruct
the untying of the Kosovo knot. "The partition option is once again in
circulation.Further, some threaten with exodus of the Serbs from Kosovo
enclaves. The Kosovo elite must take into account such and similar
challenges and act preventively."
A possible partition of Kosovo would be a time bomb in
this part of the Balkans, agreed the participants in the conference.
Therefore, the Contact Group's stance that there would be no partition
of Kosovo was not enough per se - it should be followed by active policy
and concrete measures.
The conference ended by adopting a joint declaration.
HCHRS |
