Milivojevic: By prohibiting Serbs from voting, Kurti and those who support him are violating all agreements

By stating that without an "interstate agreement" with Belgrade, Serbian elections cannot be held in Kosovo, Albin Kurti, along with all those who support him in the West, is violating UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and all previously reached agreements, diplomat Zoran Milivojevic says.

As Milivojevic points out for Kosovo Online, there is no doubt that what Kurti is conditioning the voting of Serbs in Kosovo on, in the extraordinary parliamentary elections for the Assembly of Serbia scheduled for December 17, is unacceptable.

"According to what Kurti is asking for, there are no conditions for these elections to take place. Considering that he has the support of Western centers of power, we will have the same story as in the last elections, and Serbs from Kosovo will have to cross into central Serbia to exercise their rights in this electoral process. It is quite clear that what Kurti is demanding for Serbia is unacceptable and unattainable. This shows that he is not changing his political strategy, and his only political goal and strategy are for Serbia to recognize the independence of Kosovo," Milivojevic says.

This is, he adds, a maximalist goal, which not only prevents the holding of elections but also the entire normalization process and casts doubt on the dialogue.

"This is nothing new; it was expected, and the only question when it comes to elections, but also other issues related to dialogue and normalization, is the position of Western centers of power. Do they really have an interest in achieving some normalization, de-escalation, or not? If there is no change in the stance, then we are in a vicious circle, and I am afraid there will be no results," he notes.

He emphasizes that this is depriving the Serbian people of basic rights.

"In that sense, what President Vucic said in a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg about Kosovo and Metohija, about Serbs – that there are double standards and tolerating something that goes against international law but also against basic human and all other rights," Milivojevic points out.

Preventing Serbs in Kosovo from voting, Milivojevic says, violates UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

"This violates what, according to this Resolution, international law, and what the majority, three-quarters of humanity, think, that Kosovo and Metohija is part of Serbia, that it is under the temporary jurisdiction of the UN, and that there are institutions that guarantee such status. So, Kurti is violating that primarily, but everyone who supports him in this, either directly or tacitly, is also violating it," the diplomat says.

He adds that the Brussels Agreement and all other agreements are being violated precisely on the grounds that "Kosovo is not a state and cannot be."

"Everything that is an attempt to prove this outside the law and outside the agreements is a violation. And it is generally to the detriment of rights, but also human rights, of the people living there and who cannot use those rights in a way that is enabled to everyone else and in other situations," Milivojevic concludes.