Vujicic: Unpleasantries during the presentation of the draft of the CSM Statute; Kurti and Bislimi were throwing comments all the time

Danijela Vujicic, the coordinator of the Management Team for drafting the Statute of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities, said that the team had had only 30 minutes, as foreseen by the European Union, to present the draft, but that Albin Kurti and Besnik Bislimi had been throwing insults and being rude all the time.

"After five years, we had the opportunity to present the draft of the CSM Statute. In addition to the opening address that I gave, we only had 30 minutes as the EU had foreseen. It was impossible to present 67 articles and nine chapters in 30 minutes, but through the presentation, I managed to do it. It is now a big job for the delegation to read it article by article and for the parties to make certain remarks," she explained in a statement to reporters in Brussels after the team presented the draft.

She said that, together with her colleague Belovic, she had experienced great discomfort at that meeting.

"If it wasn't for Aleksandar Vucic, there would have been chaos. All the time, Kurti and Bislimi were throwing insults, addressing them mockingly and rudely, with disdain and belittling. President Vucic reacted violently to that," Vujicic added.

She reported that, upon entering the hall, the President of Serbia had greeted them with "Where are you, my Serbian women from Kosovo and Metohija", after which "chaos ensued", because Kurti and Bislimi asked why he had been using the term Kosovo and Metohija since it was not part of Serbia.

She also pointed out that enormous pressure had been put on the Management Team in the last two weeks and that they "fill the columns and front pages of the Albanian media" that the team did not want cooperation.

She pointed out that if President Vucic had not jumped into the argument to protect them as women first of all, there would have been no opportunity for them to present the hard work they had invested in the draft of the Statute.

She explained that the Statute had been worked on for four months, from April 2018 to August 2018, and that the then mayors of all municipalities, presidents of assemblies, the academic public, and experts in the fields of economy, health, and social protection had been consulted.

"Our framework was to include the four agreements agreed upon in the dialogue in the draft of the Statute. They did not want to listen calmly either. In order for the Statute to gain importance, they must first fulfill the Agreement on the Principles of Normalization of Relations, and then the Implementation Plan so that it could come to life and be part of the legal order," she stressed.

She pointed out that an Implementation Plan should have been drawn up, and since the CSM was "sui generis", they would have to implement the Implementation Plan, the second agreement which was closely related to the first one, which concerned the principle of normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

"We strictly adhered to the framework. The statute is excellent," Vujicic underlined.