UNMIK/PR/1518
PRISTINA – Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) Søren Jessen-Petersen and Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu today visited Rahovec/Orahovac municipality where they addressed concerns raised by citizens in two separate meetings in Upper and Lower Rahovec/Orahovac. Among issues discussed with the public, religious and community leaders, were Standards, security, freedom of movement, economy, decentralisation, missing persons and the status process.
“It is extremely important that the Kosovo Serbs had an opportunity today to meet the President of Kosovo and hear directly from him about the strong commitment of the Provisional Institutions and of the President of Kosovo, to address their [the Kosovo Serbs’] real concerns and build up the kind of society where they will feel confident,” the SRSG said in a press encounter after the meeting with Kosovo Serb citizens in Upper Rahovec/Orahovac.
“Clearly at this time, when many Kosovo Serbs are worried about the present and the future, I think information and communication is extremely important,” he said, “Information gap and inaccurate information, or lack of it, adds to the fears and concerns of the minorities. These meetings are very important at this crucial moment to make sure that all the citizens of Kosovo know what is going on and also know what they can expect.”
The SRSG stressed the importance of Standards implementation in building up a multiethnic, tolerant, free and rule of law-based democratic society in Kosovo. “Standards is really an agenda for the European integration of Kosovo, but also for the integration of all citizens in Kosovo. It is also the means for moving the economy forward so that new jobs can be created,” he said.
“We must have one goal in common: to work in re-establishing the kind of human relations that existed before the war, that functioned well before the war, and should function well again,” the SRSG said.
