“Kosovo is a state that has brought its independence, territorial integrity and Constitution into question,” Pristina-based publicist Veton Surroi has said, according to the Serbian media. He made these remarks on the occasion of the 11^th anniversary of Kosovo declaration of independence.

Serbian media reported further that Surroi said a group of people identifying themselves with Kosovo President Hashim Thaci for a long time has turned the project of independence into a project of looting, getting richer, and due to the lack of perspective one can hear more often “it is never too late to abandon tobacco and Kosovo.”

Surroi added that tariffs imposed to Serbia should be revoked, adding it is not known when and how that would happen.

The aim was to work on normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, creating a room for free movement of goods, capital and people, Surroi assessed, adding it would be good to work in parallel on suspending the tariffs and strengthening the negotiation framework between Kosovo and Serbia.

Commenting on the attitude of the international community towards Kosovo and Kosovo leaders, Surroi said it is not only “Dick Marty’s report that created the Special Court, but also the entire attitude of the international community towards Kosovo.”

“For many years our state is paying agencies for lobbying in Washington and in other places, not to advance the interests of the country, but to prevent that Thaci goes to prison,” Serbian media quoted Surroi as saying this.

He noted Kosovo must return to a strong platform that requires negotiations on good neighborly relations, and not about presence of Serbia in Kosovo. Asked what could have been achieved over the last 11 years, Surroi assessed that Kosovo has become a state in which majority of the population is functionally illiterate and without perspective. According to him investments were spent on corruption and employment of people close to political parties in the public sector.

He noted that if one can negotiate on the territory and constitutional arrangement of the state, then the entire independence package sealed by the International Court of Justice opinion from 2010 may be brought into question, Serbian media reported.