The president of the coordinating body of the Government of Serbia for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja Zoran Stankovic told Belgrade based daily Vecernje Novosti that the southern part of central Serbia is not threatened by any armed conflict.
Stankovic categorically claims that a war in this area will not happen, despite "constant announcements".
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci told BETA news agency he would love to visit Presevo valley, however, there are some obstacles to it, a prison sentence issued by the Serbian authorities.
I would, with best wishes, love to visit Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac. However, there are obstacles to it, prison sentences issued in absentia for me and my co-fighters, including Adem Jashari, Thaci said, adding “that unfortunately Serbia cannot free itself from the past.”
Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ivica Dacic told Tanjug news agency today that visit of Kosovo President, Hashim Thaci to the municipalities in southern Serbia is not announced.
Pristina-based media earlier reported about unofficial information from the Kosovo President Thaci’s Cabinet that Hashim Thaci together with EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn would visit on Wednesday the three municipalities populated by Albanians in Southern Serbia.
Annexation of the three southern Serbian municipalities populated by Albanians, by Kosovo, will not be on the agenda of the EU facilitated Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Serbian Government official in charge of the region Zoran Stankovic told TV N1.
Stankovic, who is heading the Coordination Body for Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja municipalities, added the international community representatives had told him there would be no exchange of territories (between Belgrade and Pristina) because that would trigger a chain reaction not only in the Balkans.
The Mayor of the Presevo municipality, a part of Serbia’s southern region of Presevo Valley, said late on Thursday that his fellow ethnic Albanians were against the exchanges of territories with Kosovo, “even if that means we will stay where we are now,” the Beta news agency reported.
Sqiprim Arifi said that Presevo Valley ethnic Albanians “want a strong Kosovo, and its north (with a Serb majority) even if the price we have to pay is to remain under (the control of) Serbia.”
By Perparim Isufi, Maja Zivanovic BIRN Pristina, Belgrade
Analysts say recent heated rhetoric about the possibility of border changes will affect the popularity of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci - but probably not enough to unseat them.
The recent intensive exchange of statements about border ‘corrections’ between Serbia and Kosovo will affect the popularity of both presidents, analysts believe.
The annexation of Serbia’s southern region advocated by Pristina and the ethnic Albanians from the Presevo Valley would be a partition of central Serbia not of Kosovo, Rasim Ljajic, Serbia’s Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, said on Thursday.
The Mayor of the Presevo Valley Bujanovac town told N1 that a longtime lack of willingness to include the ethnic Albanians into the state structures and in the society as a whole left an impression that Serbia didn’t want them.
Representatives of all parties acting among Albanians in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja and representatives of the non-governmental sector agreed that the Assembly of all Albanian councillors from these three municipalities will meet on July 14th and adopt a statement on political events in the region, the President of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), Ragmi Mustafa told news agency FoNet.
On Monday, a commission was formed from representatives of all political parties, which will prepare the statement.
Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said that the local authorities in the Medvedja municipality, in the south of central Serbia, invited him to visit the place and he added that he was ready to visit both Presevo and Belgrade also if invited and if his visit had a protocol, writes today Belgrade based tabloid Kurir.