UNMIK/PR/1302
PRISTINA – The SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen met Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica this morning during his one-day visit to Belgrade. The SRSG briefed the President and the Prime Minister on the progress being made on the decentralisation issue and reiterated the call for a resumption of direct dialogue on missing persons. He also repeated his invitation for the Serbian leadership to join UNMIK and the PISG on high-level talks on security issues of common concern.
PM Kostunica and President Tadic for their part focused almost entirely on the issue of electricity supply to the village of Batuse/Batusha and Kosovo Serb areas of Lipjan/Lipljan. These places have been without electricity following a network breakdown and the subsequent unwillingness of villagers to commit to making payments to KEK as a condition to repairs being made– a policy that applies to all of KEK’s customers.
The SRSG said he understood their concerns, especially in relation to individual cases where people may be facing hardship. He asked his Senior Advisor on Minority Issues, Craig Jenness, to visit these villages tomorrow, accompanied by Kosovo Serb representatives, to ascertain the exact reasons why residents are not able to pay their bills. “KEK has a policy which I support, which is that people should pay for the services they receive. This is what happens everywhere. But if there are individual cases of hardship, we will of course address them immediately as a humanitarian issue that must be dealt with through social welfare mechanisms”, said the SRSG at a press conference following his meetings.
Søren Jessen-Petersen added that he was disappointed that the Serbian leaders did not address the other equally important issues he had come prepared to discuss. “It is unfortunate because progress is being made on a number of issues of direct interest to Kosovo Serbs, especially decentralisation. And the clock is ticking, we must move on. We feel Belgrade could play a very useful role if they engaged constructively on these important issues and that’s why I regret that they have felt unable to do so today. But we must press ahead and will continue to do so”.
The SRSG was also disappointed that there has been no firm commitment from the Prime Minister on the humanitarian issue of missing persons despite the call from ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger last week, and the SRSG’s own call this morning, for a quick resumption of direct dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade. But the SRSG intends to propose a date in the near future of the resumption of the dialogue.