Milicevic: Kosovo and Metohija is ours, maybe not as much as we would like, but it is not as others would like either

Kosovo and Metohija is ours, maybe not as much as we would like, but it is not the way some others would like it either, the Minister without portfolio in charge of coordinating measures and activities in the field of relations with the diaspora in the Government of Serbia, Djordje Milicevic, said in an interview for Kosovo Online.

As stated by Minister Milicevic, what the "Prime Minister of the temporary institutions of the Kosovo and Metohija, Albin Kurti, is talking about should not be of interest to Serbia."

"We talk to the international community. Particularly important was the Conversation with Chollet, the State Department Counselor, who is directly appointed by the US president. They speak openly about the so-called independence of Kosovo and Metohija from their perspective, but at the same time, they are also someone you can talk to because they understand our positions. I have no illusions that we can change the stance of the great powers on this issue, but they hear you. Why do you think the Americans said - CSM with or without Kurti," Milicevic said.

How do you view the Franco-German plan?

What would happen if we decided to say no to talks at this point, do we have an answer to what happens after that? Should we put everything we have achieved in the field of economics aside, to isolate ourselves? Is that the goal? Serbia has always advocated for dialogue and a fair and compromised solution, not humiliating Serbia. As the President of the Republic Aleksandar Vucic said, Serbia must remain committed to dialogue. Serbia respected all the documents and participated in the dialogue all the time. The president called for a social dialogue, the opposition demanded an Assembly session, and we saw what happened.  The key question is whether we can realistically look at our position on Kosovo and Metohija. Kosovo and Metohija is ours, maybe not as much as we would like, but it is not as much as some others would like. How much Serbia will gain in the whole process, which President Vucic has been fighting for ten years, depends on us, on our unity, which the president is calling for. However, it is also important to accept the mistakes that have been made. President Vucic is not responsible for the fact that the persons on the warrants are now in charge of temporary institutions in Pristina instead of in prison in Nis. In 2011, Aleksandar Vucic did not sign the agreement for administrative transitions, so due to the elections, it was waited until 2012 to announce it. President Vucic did not transfer the negotiations from the UN to Brussels, nor did he write to the International Court of Justice, and yet every UN session on Kosovo begins and ends with the opinion of that court from 2010. All those who had hindsight should be ready to answer those questions.

Will Kurti continue with the construction of bases in northern Kosovo, but also with the confiscation of land from the Serbs?

I don't think Kurti will stop there. He tries to cause conflict through incidents. All of them see this as the final stage of the dialogue and want Serbia to arbitrarily renounce part of its territory beyond Resolution 1244 and thus grant amnesty to those who bombed the country in 1999 without the permission of the UN Security Council. All those incidents should lead to a new conflict where the Serbs would again be labeled as the culprits and serve as a basis for the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija. Every failure in the dialogue was a success for Kurti and opened the door for unilateral acts of additional pressure on Serbia. Kurti does not see the CSM as a solution, he sees only one goal, which is the independence of Kosovo and membership in the UN, and he wants to physically expel the Serbs from Kosovo.

How much did the war in Ukraine affect the situation in the Western Balkans, and how much pressure is there on Serbia to impose sanctions on Russia?

The geopolitical circumstances are currently complex. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, there has been enormous pressure on Serbia to recognize the so-called Kosovo independence or impose sanctions on Russia. Serbia is the only country in Europe, although small in terms of population and area, that managed to maintain its independence and respected international public law and the basic principles of the UN Charter. The essence of leading a state is independence in internal and external policy. After the attack, the attempted murder of the boys who were guilty only because they were Serbs, who were carrying a Christmas tree in their hands and returning from the liturgy, Kurti sent some kind of apology that it was about Kosovo citizens, but he also used the opportunity to accuse Serbia and talk about autocratic and a hybrid regime with very good ties to the Kremlin. He wants to put a sign of equality with Zelensky, and he equates Vucic with Putin, but then let him say when and where Serbia set foot in other countries. We respect the territorial integrity of every internationally recognized state. When did Serbia wage wars of conquest, never… Serbia's territorial integrity was violated. This continued in 2008 when more than 110 countries recognized it at that time, and now the number has dropped due to the diplomatic activity led by President Vucic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Serbia introduced the term derecognition. And why is that important? Because regardless of the size of the country, one country represents one vote.

Kurti seeks reciprocity for Albanians from Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja. How do you view that?

That's a topic Kurti shouldn't be dealing with. It is a danger for the central part of Serbia, I have been talking about it for a long time. It is known that the National Council of Albanians was not formed, and to them, Serbia is probably responsible for that, but they expressed their gratitude to Kurti for financing their trip to the US in order to raise the issue of some kind of unequal situation. What are they talking about? Do the army and police break into their houses, confiscate wine, or get funds from Serbia for infrastructure projects? We withdrew from the polling stations so that they could have their own representative. Imagine members of the Serb List speaking like that member of theirs in our Parliament. Would it be possible for the representatives of the Serb List to speak like that, to provoke like that in Pristina, as he did in Belgrade? In the previous convocation, I asked about that MP (Shaip Kamberi) and whether he swore an oath in the Serbian Parliament, where it is clearly stated that Kosovo and Metohija is an integral part of Serbia, and they told me that he did. It is a real issue of democracy and freedom of speech.