Petkovic: Bislimi's behavior is scandalous; Pristina does not want the CSM

The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, pointed out after an eight-hour round of dialogue in Brussels at the level of the main negotiators, that the behavior of Besnik Bislimi had been scandalous and confirmed that Pristina did not want to form the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities.

After the meetings, Petkovic told the journalists that the eight-hour talks had been at times very painful and unpleasant.

"It is not at all easy to talk to Pristina. Besnik Bislimi's behavior was scandalous, unlike Belgrade, which came fully prepared, with experts, proposals, and all the papers. Every time, we prepare, disciplined, meticulous, with all the materials, and that's how we came to Brussels this time, unlike Bislimi who came alone, without any papers," Petkovic said.

As he stated, Bislimi had not wanted to provide specific answers on important issues.

"When we should have discussed important issues, such as the further implementation of the formation of the CSM, the issue of missing persons after the adoption of the Declaration on Missing Persons, but also other important matters, such as freedom of movement, issues related to the very life of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, institutional violence of Albin Kurti, which happens every day towards the Serbs, the attack of the Kosovo police on the Serbs, the shooting of innocent people and many things that happen in the lives of our people south and north of the Ibar almost every day... Bislimi did not want to give any concrete answers to that," Petkovic underlined.

He pointed out that Bislimi had been trying all the time to completely make the entire course of conversation and dialogue senseless with various intrusions.

"We also talked about the issue of energy. When I refer to the agreements and the UN Charter, Bislimi says that I am talking nonsense. When I show the rejection letter, why the RTS journalist Svetlana Vukmirovic, who works on the EU project, a program about the assets of the Serbs in Kosovo, "Pravo na sutra" is forbidden to enter the territory of Kosovo, and when I gave Bislimi the refusal card issued by the Kosovo police in Merdar, he took it and threw it on the floor. All this shows that he is not interested in anything and that he just wants to stage a conversation, to make some kind of semblance of participating in dialogue, but in principle, we have come to what President Aleksandar Vucic has been talking about all the time, which is that Albin Kurti, Bislimi and everyone else in Pristina do not want to form the CSM," he underlined.

Petkovic said that when he mentioned the CSM, Bislimi said that he was hearing about it for the first time and asked what it was because he did not know what the Community was.

"Since he claims to be an expert and that he knows all the topics, how then did he not read the basic four agreements related to the CSM, to see the goal, the competencies of the CSM, what it should look like, who are its organs, that it is a mechanism that should ensure collective and individual rights for the Serbs in Kosovo, given that there are no such rights, that Serbs are exposed to violence and various attacks every day," Petkovic stressed.

He said that they should have discussed certain documents related to the methodology of further drafting the Statute for the CSM, given that those papers had been received in advance from the EU, as well as further steps for the establishment of a joint commission for missing persons, after the Declaration, and then to discuss another joint commission to monitor implementation.

"We came with a proposal on how we see the process and how to speed it all up. Bislimi's behavior is the same as Kurti's when we had a high-level dialogue. He came without any papers and said that he would answer about the missing persons in a week. The problem was only to agree with the fact that we have a subgroup for forensics and analytics, which already exists within the Working Group for Missing Persons. They are grasping at little things, in order to try to postpone the further implementation of the CSM," Petkovic underlined.

He said that this showed that Belgrade was the one that sincerely insisted on the issue of the missing persons, and Kosovo was running away from it, just as it was running away from the CSM.

"When I again gave Bislimi our request to resolve the issue of freedom of movement and our proposal for license plates, he did not want to talk. That man does not want to agree on anything, he does not want to discuss anything. I don't know how we can continue talks, and to go in the direction of normalization," Petkovic asked.

He repeats that Belgrade wants normalization primarily because of the Serbs in Kosovo, and because it is a responsible party that preserves peace and stability and understands that in these difficult times, it is important to preserve peace and people's lives.

"I told Bislimi - 'instead of your behavior, give us some concrete solution to move in the direction of normalization', and he asked - 'what is normalization'. For us, it means that we normalize relations on the ground, between people, so that they have a normal life, to cooperate economically, to solve the issue of freedom of movement. He won't talk about it," Petkovic pointed out.

As he says, when UN Resolution 1244 and the Constitution of Serbia are mentioned to Bislimi, he "jumps as if scalded".

He adds that Bislimi wants the CSM issue to be resolved not as stipulated in the agreements from 2013 and 2015 but based on some letters, decisions of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, and the like.

"When he answers, he reads an article of the agreement, when he doesn't answer, then he pretends not to know the agreement. They postpone the issue of the missing persons, even though I asked for our experts to enter the meeting room and specifically solve everything about forensics and analytics because it is about professional terms. Bislimi said that he did not need experts. The situation is difficult and I am worried about how things will develop in the next period. We will, of course, do our best to keep the peace and talk. No matter how much Bislimi tries to interrupt the meeting and force us to the reaction he would have wanted, we remained calm until the end because it is important for us to participate in dialogue since dialogue is the only way to solve problems. We believe that compromise is something that must be agreed upon, but that is apparently a forbidden word in Pristina," he said.

Petkovic said that he expected the talks to continue and for Pristina to give its response to all EU proposals and papers.

He reported that Belgrade had highlighted today as key topics, and what had been insisted on, above all the formation of the CSM, to reach a common methodology on how and what to do next when it came to drafting the statute because it was an urgent issue, above all for peace in Kosovo.

"What and how to proceed regarding missing persons. We have the Declaration and now we need to implement it through commissions and a working group to begin the exchange of information, specific tasks on the ground, and everything that is written in it. We insisted on the issue of freedom of movement, what about license plates? Bislimi and Pristina prohibit KM license plates on Serbian vehicles. We offered a solution," he said.

To all these things, he adds, Bislimi is silent and has no answer.

"When you talk about energy and everything else, I won't say that it sounds funny, but it is inappropriate for him to comment on everything without being an expert in those areas," Petkovic noted.

He pointed out that in the end, everything came down to politics, to attacks on President Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbs.

When asked if they had also discussed at the trilateral meeting everything that he had conveyed to Miroslav Lajcak in a separate meeting, Petkovic said that Belgrade raised all urgent issues in all discussions - about the situation on the ground, the undemocratic elections in the north of Kosovo, which had been attended by 3,4 percent of Albanians, and only 13, that is practically 11 Serbs, to the fact that the "so-called mayors" had no legitimacy and that the idea that they would appoint them as mayors in Serbian areas was absolutely meaningless...

"On all issues, on attacks on the Serbs, on all topics that literally put the lives of our people in Kosovo and Metohija into question, and robberies and institutional violence and abuses of the judiciary, the arrest of our people... I pointed to all that. And how is it possible that they are releasing Kurtaj and another Albanian, who shot at an innocent man, under house arrest, while Todosijevic gets a year in prison? What is this about," Petkovic said.

As he said, Bislimi had thrown on the floor the refusal received by the RTS journalist, even though a few days ago the journalist team from Pristina had gone to Presevo in the most normal way, because it was natural and normal for journalists to report and to move freely.

"But that obviously does not apply to Kurti and Bislimi, who threw away this document, which you can also ask Miroslav Lajcak about," Petkovic said.

When asked if this meant that positions had not converged on any topic, Petkovic said that it was important to continue the talks, and that Belgrade was in favor of rapprochement, but that the other side was also needed for that.

"Lajcak has said several times that it is important to hear each other, to exchange arguments, to see where we are... This is impossible when Bislimi says that he is an expert on everything. He only asks - when you will recognize Kosovo. First, that is not the topic, and secondly - we will never do it," Petkovic said.

He also reiterated that there was much that Belgrade could implement, but that the "red lines" it adhered to remain - that it would never agree to Kosovo's membership in the UN and that it would never recognize Kosovo.

He added that many topics were open, which Belgrade was ready to discuss.

"We were ready to talk, to wrap up some things and topics, especially about the things we received in advance from Lajcak. We came prepared, Bislimi said that he had not done that and that he would answer by the end of the week... What did you call us to Brussels today?" Petkovic concluded.