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Kosova: Rehna and Solana on EU Kosova plan |
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Sunday, 16 July 2006 |
Olli Rehn and Javier Solana will present the EU ministers with a revised plan for the EUs role in the Kosova status solution.
The plan will relate to the period after the status solution, when the EU will take responsibility for the police force and micro-economy. It is expected that Martti Ahtisaari, the UN special envoy, will present the EU ministers with his conclusions, after the Security Council report and debate, as well as preparations for a high level meeting between Serbian and Kosova officials.
Serbias negotiating team will hold a meeting prior to the next two rounds of decentralization and cultural heritage protection talks. This is the first meeting since PM Koštunicas visit to the U.S. The meeting will also be attended by the Serbian president Boris Tadić and the Foreign minister Vuk Drašković.
After her four-day visit to Kosova, the Coordinating center chairwoman Sanda Rašković-Ivić said she encountered fear and apprehension as the dominant state of mind of the Serbian population, but hope as well. People are afraid of the Kosova independence talk. They are almost used to movement restrictions they live under, to the breach of human rights, but what is really worrisome is the possibility of Kosovas independence, considering how they live today, when the province is under international jurisdiction.
She says that she did not see any evidnce of improvement in the field, and Kosova Serbs have expressed their expectations that the state of Serbia will defend Kosova in future status talks and keep it within Serbia. I have not seen improvements in terms of more security, freedom of movement, but I have to be critical of our side as well. UNMIK and KFOR are responsible for security, and our country should influence them so that they influence the Albanians and provide that freedom. However, people look to Serbia for economic prosperity and Sebia should deliver on that, Ivić-Rašković said.
Rašković-Ivić said that decentralization had an important place. I have not visited a single place where people have not asked whether their village or area will be included in the decentralization procedure, since they see a key to their survival in this, she said. The seventh round of talks related to Kosova status technical issues will be held tomorrow in Vienna. Serbian and Albanian negotiators will discuss protected zones around monasteries and churches and the protection of other monuments in Kosova.
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