It is very important that the new government in Pristina urgently devotes its efforts to setting up the Community of Serb municipalities (ZSO), Farid Zarif, chief of the Temporary Resident of United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said at a UN Security Council quarterly debate on the situation in the southern Serbian province on Friday.
Given that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will be resumed on February 9, Zarif urged those who started the high level talks in Brussels – former prime ministers and currently foreign ministers, Ivica Dacic and Hasim Taci – to show their support for full implementation of all already agreed principles and make serious decisions that were vital for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
The Kosovo government should fully commit to setting up the ZSO, one of the provisions of the Brussels agreement. I hope that new areas will be dealt with in the dialogue and that the implementation of what was agreed during negotiations will be continued, Zarif said in his address to the meeting via video teleconference.
He stressed that difficult decisions lay ahead and that the two sides should do what was in the best interests of all people in the region.
I hope the leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, at all levels, will boldly embrace their responsibilities in this critical moment and this historical process of normalization and sometimes make tough decisions to make this process work, Zarif said.
Given the recent violent protests in Kosovo, it is of vital importance for the leaders in Belgrade and Pristina to refrain from making any statements or reacting in a way that could increase tension, particularly regarding the Trepca Mines, he said.
Zarif said that violence was reprehensible and called on political actors and civil society in Kosovo to distance themselves from violent protests.
The UNMIK chief oberved that some political leaders had even tried to take advantage of the situation and draw attention away from their responsibility for what had happened.
He said that the (ethnic Albanians’) protests had largely been organized by the opposition, adding that a growing dissatisfaction with the economic situation, which one could see from an alarming increase in emigration in recent months, was also a reason to stage them.
Zarif once again pointed to the importance of setting up a special court for war crimes committed in Kosovo in 1998-1999, and called on the government in Pristina to make efforts to discourage young people from joining terrorist movements across the globe.
