IS PRISTINA DREAMING ABOUT A GREATER ALBANIA?

IS PRISTINA DREAMING ABOUT A GREATER ALBANIA?

 

09.05.2011. http://glassrbije.org/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14636 There are no taboo topics for the Serbian negotiating team in their search for solutions that are to improve the life of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. Only in that context can one interpret the recent statement of the head of the Serbian negotiating team in dialogue with Pristina, Borko Stefanović, made in the Serbian Parliament in reply to a remark by an MP that a division of Kosmet is the only topic Belgrade is ready to discuss. The statement has been too readily regarded by media and politicians in Pristina as an argument for them to, on one hand, emphasize their attachment to territorial integrity of Kosovo and on the other, to again render topical the idea of exchange of territories – namely the north of Kosmet for the so-called Presevo valley, claiming they will insist on reciprocal solutions. Thus Priština has again proved not to be a factor attached to finding a solution through dialogue and by amicable means, and has shown again that it represents a destabilizing factor encouraging separatism, deepening gaps and transferring the crisis outside the Province. Vukomir Petrić has more. The dialogue in Brussels has been launched to resolve the numerous open-ended issues in  Kosovo. The so-called state of Kosovo is not functioning in any field. The life of Kosovo Albanians as well is difficult, but the life of Serbs there is below all the norms of civilization. Serbs in Kosovo have no freedom of movement, their homes and property have been usurped, they have no jobs, the firms in which they worked have been sold and the privatization money vanished. Many Serbian Orthodox Church sanctities, churches and monasteries, have been devastated or demolished. The Serbian state property in Kosovo has been either expropriated or exposed to constant destruction.  These problems, and many others, should be resolved on an emergency basis, in order to prevent the so-called youngest European state to fall into abyss further, as it is Kosmet Serbs that are again to suffer most. For Serbia, Kosovo and Metohija is part of its territory. This is the position of most of the countries in the world and a fact according to UN SC Resolution 1244. Therefore it is not in the interest of Serbia for Kosovo to be a permanently destabilizing factor in the heart of Europe and especially a territory where the life of Serbs is impossible. The aforesaid statement of Borko Stefanović, that everything can be discussed for the purpose of the improvement of the situation, was given in that light. Serbia is an internationally recognized country, a UN member-state with stable democratic institutions. Kosovo is not – it is a territory where most things are not functioning, a territory under the violent influence of mafia and tribal groups, who are trying to export chaos outside the administrative border. There is no legal or logical reason to compare the north of Kosmet to the south of Serbia, where inter-ethnic trust has been established with much difficulty. Reaching for the south of Serbia is undoubtedly part of the project of a Greater Albania,  whose borders were outlined as early as in the Prizren League. The expansionist appetites have been as of late particularly forced by former Albanian president Mojsiju, who was recently welcomed by the Pristina authorities in the village of Prekaze near Srbica and where, to the loudest acclaim, he reiterated that Kosovo was an Albanian province and that all the Albanians were to live in one state. A question is thus posed – what  do the Albanian authorities in Pristina actually want to attain through negotiations – a solution to some life issues in Kosovo or the homogeneization of Albanians who live outside the territory of the Province on the basis of the idea of a greater Albania and the internalization of that issue? If international mediators would like the dialogue to produce some concrete results, they should tackle this issue immediately. ========================================================================