Brussels based correspondent of the paper, Augustin Palokaj, criticizes the government of Kosovo for not being serious on its promises. ‘The government is not serious on the claims that Kosovo has full sovereignty, on complete reintegration of the north, promises for hundreds of thousands of new jobs, visa liberalization, EU and NATO integration just as in the recent statements that Kosovo Serbs will vote during Serbia’s elections based on the Constitution of Kosovo and that Vucic visited Kosovo as a foreign politician with the permission of the government of Kosovo,” Palokaj writes.
He further notes that even though the government claims that the parallel structures in the north are disintegrated, nothing has changed when Serbia’s elections in Kosovo are concerned. “They are being held by Serbia and facilitated by the OSCE, which does not recognize Kosovo as a state and where Kosovo is not a member.” He explains the procedures based on international conventions of holding the elections in another state. “We have not seen Serbia organizing elections for its citizens at the Serbian embassy, because it does not have one in Kosovo. What we have seen is Serbia’s claiming that it is organizing elections in its own territory. Serbia does not organize such elections in any other state and no other state organizes elections in Kosovo in the manner that Serbia does.”
Writing about the recent findings of the international commission for demarcation of the border between Kosovo and Montenegro, Palokaj writes “I do not know what kind of commission is that when in their report they mention “the good neighborly relations between Kosovo and Montenegro,” when it is well known that no one problematized these relations and which are in reality very good,” notes Palokaj. According to him, the problem stands in the manner that Kosovo approaches solutions of problems and the explanations to the public opinion, using always as argument support of the “international factor” and “international experts.” Now, even the Special Court which will be suing some former KLA members, will be international, even though it was established by Kosovo, for Kosovo and based on Kosovo laws,” he writes.
He further says that Kosovo might gain international support also regarding participation of Kosovo Serbs in Serbia’s elections and regarding the visits of the Serbian Prime Minister and its other politicians in Kosovo, but this does not make these visits less problematic, because everyone knows that in these cases, Kosovo’s voice is the least heard.
“Formally, the position of the government of Kosovo towards the status of Kosovo appears the same as EU’s. Just as we have countries in the EU which do not recognize the independence of Kosovo, there are ministers in Kosovo’s government that consider Kosovo as part of Serbia.”
The problem does not stand on the visits of the Serbian PM but on what he says. Vucic said that Serbia will invest in Kosovo just as in its other parts, and made it clear that he considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia. He was accompanied by Ministers of the Republic of Kosovo who refer to the government of Serbia as “our government”. Kosovo should certainly have members of Serb community in its government. Kosovo would not be a normal state without Serbs. But there is a bizarre situation when the Ministers of the government of Kosovo do not recognize the state where they are ministers of the government,” concludes Palokaj.
