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Rakic: The same attitude on the Kosovo army; there are no more negotiations on the ZSO (Kontakt plus radio, Politika)

President of the Serb List Goran Rakic in an interview for the Belgrade based daily Politika rejected speculations and reiterated the unique position of that party, that it would not support the formation of the Kosovo army, and said that there are no further negotiations on the Community/Association of Serb Municipalities (ZSO), and that he expects its formation.

"The formation of the Kosovo Army requires constitutional changes which require a two-thirds majority of minority communities, and those are the votes of all nine deputies in the provincial parliament. The Serbs will not give those votes, and this move is condemned to failure," Rakic said in an interview for today's edition of the daily Politika.

According to him, if the Albanian parties decide to bypass the Serbian List, avoiding the procedure of constitutional changes and "vote for some kind of law," this "would have no legitimacy and would be a dead letter on a paper".

"Such a move would not even have the support of the international community in Kosmet, and also at the European Union headquarters in Brussels and NATO headquarters," Rakic told Politika, reports Kontakt plus radio today.

Asked if there were any conditions under which the Serbian List would support the transformation of security forces into the Kosovo Army, Rakic unambiguously replied - "No".

"No. The answer is clear. According to UN Security Council Resolution 1244, KFOR is the only legal and legitimate armed force in Kosovo and Metohija," he stressed.

When it comes to the position of the Serbian List, on the occasion of the request of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Yee to end the close relations between the Serbian List and Belgrade, Rakic stressed that without the presence of Serbia "there is no survival of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija".

"We do not have other countries except Serbia, and that's the fact," he said.

Rakic demands from the international community to stop the unlawful arrests of Serbs, as well as the most severe punishments of those who report falsely the Serb returnees.

He underlined in the interview that the Serbian List, together with "the provisional Kosovo institutions and present international institutions is working seriously on the solution" of the problem arising from the arrest of Serbs charged with serious crimes based on, according to Politika, the false testimonies of Albanians.

"A few days ago, the members of the Serbian List, from Natalya Apostolova, the EU representative in Kosmet, requested directly involvement of the EU in order to stop unfounded arrests, but also, those who falsely report Serbs, most severely punish, as this is the only way for returnees to not face the accusations of those who have usurped their property," Rakic underlined for the daily.