Post by Bozur on Feb 17, 2005 13:42:15 GMT -5
Serb leader rejects calls for an independent Kosovo
Autonomy would be ‘unacceptable,’ Boris Tadic says on landmark visit
AP
Serbian President Boris Tadic is pictured under a Serbian flag yesterday as he arrived in the Serb-populated village of Strpce in southern Kosovo under the heavy protection of UN police.
Agence France-Presse - By Jovan Matic
STRPCE - Serbian President Boris Tadic yesterday became the first Serbian head of state to visit Kosovo since the southern province became a UN protectorate at the end of the 1998-1999 war, rejecting calls for independence.
In a visit aimed at shedding more light on the difficult situation faced by minority Serbs living here, Tadic ruled out as «unacceptable» independence for the mainly ethnic Albanian province.
«I am against the independence of Kosovo and for me, it is unacceptable. I will never accept such a solution,» Tadic told some 2,000 Serbs gathered to greet him in the central Kosovo town of Strpce.
Tadic said his trip was designed to remind the world of the plight of Serbs in Kosovo, the historic heartland of Serbian culture and religion.
The visit also comes ahead of long-awaited talks on Kosovo's final status, expected to start later this year under UN auspices, and amid plans to resume technical talks this month on matters such as refugees and missing people.
At his meeting with the UN Kosovo chief Soren Jessen-Petersen in the Kosovo capital of Pristina, Tadic said he had demanded «additional guarantees» for Serbs and other non-Albanians living in the province.
Petersen himself «encouraged once more the full participation of Kosovo Serbs in the political and democratic process in order to ensure that maximum progress could be made on issues important to them,» a statement from his office said. More than 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since the UN took control at the end of the war, when separatist guerrillas from Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority battled Serbian security forces under then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Only some 80,000 Serbs remain in scattered enclaves where they live under constant threat of violence from ethnic Albanian extremists despite promises of protection from NATO peacekeepers.
Ethnic tensions deteriorated in March last year when mobs of ethnic Albanians rampaged through Serb villages for three days, unopposed by international forces. Nineteen people died and some 4,000 were driven from their homes.
In Pristina, police cordoned off the UN headquarters during the meeting between Tadic and Petersen as a small group of protesters, demanding Serbia account for people still listed as missing from the war, attempted to enter but were pushed away.
«Twelve thousand people gave their lives so no one like this (a Serbian leader) could ever come here again,» ethnic Albanian student activist Albin Kurti, who was jailed during the nationalist Milosevic regime, told AFP in reference to the war.
Demonstrators tried to pelt Tadic with eggs, but local police surrounded him and safely took him out from the UN compound. Two demonstrators were detained, police said.
Before Pristina, Tadic visited the tiny ethnic Serb village of Silovo near the northern town of Gnjilane, the first stop on his two-day itinerary where local residents had waited for hours in heavy snow to see him.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=52929
Autonomy would be ‘unacceptable,’ Boris Tadic says on landmark visit
AP
Serbian President Boris Tadic is pictured under a Serbian flag yesterday as he arrived in the Serb-populated village of Strpce in southern Kosovo under the heavy protection of UN police.
Agence France-Presse - By Jovan Matic
STRPCE - Serbian President Boris Tadic yesterday became the first Serbian head of state to visit Kosovo since the southern province became a UN protectorate at the end of the 1998-1999 war, rejecting calls for independence.
In a visit aimed at shedding more light on the difficult situation faced by minority Serbs living here, Tadic ruled out as «unacceptable» independence for the mainly ethnic Albanian province.
«I am against the independence of Kosovo and for me, it is unacceptable. I will never accept such a solution,» Tadic told some 2,000 Serbs gathered to greet him in the central Kosovo town of Strpce.
Tadic said his trip was designed to remind the world of the plight of Serbs in Kosovo, the historic heartland of Serbian culture and religion.
The visit also comes ahead of long-awaited talks on Kosovo's final status, expected to start later this year under UN auspices, and amid plans to resume technical talks this month on matters such as refugees and missing people.
At his meeting with the UN Kosovo chief Soren Jessen-Petersen in the Kosovo capital of Pristina, Tadic said he had demanded «additional guarantees» for Serbs and other non-Albanians living in the province.
Petersen himself «encouraged once more the full participation of Kosovo Serbs in the political and democratic process in order to ensure that maximum progress could be made on issues important to them,» a statement from his office said. More than 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since the UN took control at the end of the war, when separatist guerrillas from Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority battled Serbian security forces under then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Only some 80,000 Serbs remain in scattered enclaves where they live under constant threat of violence from ethnic Albanian extremists despite promises of protection from NATO peacekeepers.
Ethnic tensions deteriorated in March last year when mobs of ethnic Albanians rampaged through Serb villages for three days, unopposed by international forces. Nineteen people died and some 4,000 were driven from their homes.
In Pristina, police cordoned off the UN headquarters during the meeting between Tadic and Petersen as a small group of protesters, demanding Serbia account for people still listed as missing from the war, attempted to enter but were pushed away.
«Twelve thousand people gave their lives so no one like this (a Serbian leader) could ever come here again,» ethnic Albanian student activist Albin Kurti, who was jailed during the nationalist Milosevic regime, told AFP in reference to the war.
Demonstrators tried to pelt Tadic with eggs, but local police surrounded him and safely took him out from the UN compound. Two demonstrators were detained, police said.
Before Pristina, Tadic visited the tiny ethnic Serb village of Silovo near the northern town of Gnjilane, the first stop on his two-day itinerary where local residents had waited for hours in heavy snow to see him.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=52929