Interview with Dejan Pavicevic, Belgrade’s Liaison Officer with Pristina

No one from Civil Protection will remain jobless and without an assignment. I don’t expect those people who used to work for their state so far, to stop doing that. They were always here to make everyone feel safer and they will continue with the same jobs in the sector of emergency situations and other institutions in Kosovo.

That’s how Dejan Pavicevic, Liaison Officer with Pristina, explained for ‘Novosti’ what is implied by an agreement on civil protection, reached last week with the Albanian side.

Will the Association/Community of Serb municipalities (A/CSM) have bigger jurisdiction than what existing laws provide for association of other Kosovo municipalities?
We don’t want to create an entity or feudal-like area of the A/CSM in Kosovo and Metohija (KiM). We want elementary conditions that would guarantee, in long terms, safety and prosperity for Serbs in KiM, and jurisdiction we insist on is only a guarantee for that.  All in relation with the A/CSM is defined by  the Brussels Agreement and we neither want nor we can accept lesser that that.

Do you have an insight in the state of affairs with regard to the Serbian property in KiM? Are there mechanisms in place to protect property rights of Serbian companies?
Systematic solution of that problem should be found in the frame of Brussels dialogue. If everyone talks about full provision of the rule of law in KiM, than it has to refer and to legal and any other sorts of protection of the Serbian property. Property background can be easily checked, be it if it is about a family house in which it has been invested by generations, or investments of the state or our people in economic subjects in KiM.

What do the figures say about how many Serbs have returned to the province, and how many have left during two years of your mandate?
I don’t dare to speak about figures since fluctuation of population is permanent and it is about a two-way process. Considerable amount of people spent half of their time in KiM and another half in Serbia proper due to a nature of their jobs. Having in mind that we don’t have full administrative control over that area, we can only make indirect conclusions, i.e. from the number of pupils that have enrolled in the first class of elementary schools. There is a permanent trend of migration from economically undeveloped regions, and that doesn’t refer only to KiM. Unlike Albanians who migrate toward the Western Europe in search for jobs, Serbs are oriented toward urban settlements in Serbia proper. From that reason the focus of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija is on creation of economically self-sustainable areas, since that is the only way to ensure long-term survival of Serbian, and other non-Albanian population in KiM.

With what kind of requests citizens usually address you?
People are coming quite often, all of them – Serbs, Albanians, but foreigners as well, with all sorts of request, human ones. They are trying to settle everyday problems. I am trying to help them in by all means. sometimes it is easy, sometimes, unfortunately, it is impossible. No matter on everything, I’ll continue to pursue the same way of doing things. There is no better feeling than when u know that you helped someone.