Participation in 8 June elections is in the interest of Serbs, stated British Ambassador to Kosovo Ian Cliff to RTK2.
“I see that political debates are starting which are not based only on patriotism. There are discussion over economy, employment, health”, said Cliff. He stressed that problems with the lack of medicine in health centers in majority Serbian municipalities in Kosovo, which has been talked about in campaign, should be resolved as soon as possible.
“After this programme I have a meeting with the Kosovo Minister of Health and we’ll see, but situation is very bad. With Martti Ahtisaari’s plan and Brussels agreement, health system for Kosovo Serbs is coming from Belgrade. We have to resolve this problems, however, I am happy that those themes are topics in the election campaigns,” said Cliff.
Following the cessation of the campaign by Srpska Ticket, Ambassador Cliff stressed that it is in the interest of Serbs to turn out on elections.
“Parliament in Pristina has influence everywhere on the life of Serbs in Kosovo. Without any doubts there will be ten seats for MPs from Serbian community, however interest of Serbs is that those are qualitative people and that they are representative,” said Cliff and added that international community supports the stance that Serbian community holds the right on reserved seats, since in that way they are encouraged to participate in the political life and realize their legitimate rights.
“The idea was that reserved seats are part of parliamentary reforms, however, there were no parliamentary reforms. That is responsibility of all parties, but in the end LDK was against the reserved seats. There is another important key for Serbian community, that one is two-third majority needed for any constitutional amendment, for any law of vital importance. And let’s say there is 10 MPs, two-third majority is 7, and that’s why we need 7 qualitative people. We should have educated and qualitative deputies who understand the legal interests of Serbian community, along with Bosniak, Roma, Gorani, etc,” explained Cliff.
According to him, the importance of the upcoming elections is in the fact that new faces will appear on the political scene. In order to have successful elections, it is necessary that they are correct. For any disrespect there will be legal consequences.
“The most important thing is the right of people to vote, second, that there are no manipulations. Observation mission of the European Union is already on the ground. My Embassy and I personally, will be on the ground on the election day. Manipulation is not acceptable, that is against the interest of all. Now we have a strong law against manipulation, people responsible for manipulations will be processed by the courts,” said Cliff.
Ambassador of the Great Britain Ian Cliff stressed that he is optimist with regards to new government. He believes that new government will have to work on the economic development and reduction of the unemployment rate, however Kosovo’s path toward the EU remains the absolute priority.
