Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content

Jaksic: Exaggerated stories on humanitarian catastrophe (Danas)

Marko Jaksic, representative of the national movement of the Serbs "Fatherland", said in an interview with Belgrdae based daily Danas that the state pharmacies in Mitrovica North are not full, but he says that they were not full even before the sanctions. The shops and private pharmacies are full and adds that they would be even fuller if Belgrade allowed alternative ways of supplying goods, but official Belgrade does not allow it, so it can continue spreading the story of a humanitarian catastrophe.

*The Pristina side would probably not allow the opening of alternative roads.

-This does not depend on Albanians, because these are alternative roads in the North of Kosovo and if you want to control all of them then you need an army of 100,000 people. So, the humanitarian catastrophe is solved in a simple way, with three bulldozers working for 15 days, but also by raising salaries for Serbs from KiM, so they can buy goods from shops where Albanians buy.

* The day-to-day protests in Kosovo, however, show that human and all other rights of Serbs in Kosovo are endangered.

- These actions in Kosovska Mitrovica, designed by the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, are politically stupid and non-inventive, so to speak. Who is affected by the patches on the students' lips in Kosovska Mitrovica? Brussels, Washington, Tirana certainly not ... The Serbs can demonstrate this way for another thousand years and it will touch no one and will not move the public. I had the opportunity to organize protests and blockades in KiM in 2011 and I know what can raise external factors, and certainly those are not the protest such as these.

* The state-run Serbian media still argue that such protests also show that the Serbian List has a unique support among the Serbs in Kosovo.

- This support could be seen the best on Saturday at the Svetlana Ceca Raznatoviz concert where there were no more than 200 people, and the concert was a working obligation of the Serbs in KiM. All shops, grocery stores and cafes on that day were shut down so people had to go to the concert, but despite of it all, the Serbian national folk diva Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic experienced a complete fiasco, having succeeded in gathering two hundred people. This only shows how many Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija appreciate this power, because despite of the calls they did not go for the ensured fun for them. Their logic was that if they had to go to rallies because of their jobs, they did not have to go to concerts.

* Does this mean that the Serbian List does not have some great support?

- Support to the Serbian List was created artificially and forcefully extorted. It was created through a system of violence and it is no wonder that it is on glass legs.

* If Haradinaj's black list comes to life, some Serbian ministers and officials will no longer be able to enter Kosovo.

- Serbs in KiM did not have any major benefits from Serbian ministers until now, because each of their visits represented a bare marketing. Bearing in mind that there are less and less Serbs in Kosovo, that the Serbs leave Kosovo because they do not feel secure and have no job, the Serbian ministers are not necessary, and no one will miss them.

* How did Serbs in the North of Kosovo receive the news on a large contingent of armoured vehicles that arrived in Kosovo?

- As far as I know, no vehicle has arrived in the north of Kosovo, but as far as the formation of the Kosovo army is concerned, Belgrade there has no real answer. Belgrade must threaten and tell them loud and clear that if they create the Kosovo army under the Resolution 1244, Belgrade has the right to enter Kosovo with its army and police. In addition, there is a big mistake and a fraud in the partition of the Serbs, because the Kosovo Army must not go to the north of Kosovo but it can embitter the Serbs' lives south of the Ibar. In this regard, Belgrade must fight to prevent the creation of the Kosovo army. If an army is created, Belgrade should refer to the Kumanovo agreement, but I am almost sure that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has no courage for such strong moves.