UNMIK/PR/1315
PRISTINA – SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen and COMKFOR Yves de Kermabon received Serbian President Boris Tadic this morning at UNMIK's Headquarters in Pristina, as he began a two-day visit to Kosovo.
The SRSG expressed his hope that President Tadic would use his visit to obtain a complete view of the current situation in Kosovo, and would have the occasion to dialogue with representatives of all communities and send positive signals on Belgrade’s readiness to build bridges of trust.
The SRSG and COMKFOR briefed the President on the situation in Kosovo, including positive developments in areas such as security, Standards implementation, and decentralisation. On Standards, the SRSG underlined the continuing efforts and commitment of the PISG and UNMIK to move forward across the range of Standards, and highlighted those areas where significant progress was needed, notably in the areas of freedom of movement and return of displaced persons. In this context, he 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.
On the issue of energy, Søren Jessen-Petersen made it clear that KEK's policy is non-discriminatory. He also expressed concern that the resolution of the problem of villages experiencing network failures had been complicated by attempts to politicise the issue. He stated his hope that the Serbian President’s visit might be helpful in resolving the problems linked to non-payment of electricity bills.
In the meeting, the SRSG and Boris Tadic also discussed reconstruction of religious monuments, where considerable funds from the PISG and UNMIK had been made available and work was ready to proceed, pending a re-engagement of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the process.
Tadic's visit is the first of a Serbian President to Kosovo since 1999.