For the first time in Serbia’s history, there iss a real threat of a Serbian hand signing a document on the transfer of Kosovo and Metohija under someone else's rule, says a statement of the opposition Democratic Party of Serbia signed by numerous representatives of the Serbian public calling to stop the process of secession of Kosovo and Metohija, which took an alarming form.
"The demands of the US and the most influential EU countries for Serbia to sign a "legally binding document "and accept the membership of Kosovo in international organizations, including the UN, as well as any division of Kosovo and Metohija, are unacceptable and must be immediately rejected once and for all," runs the statement. It was signed by 178 Serbian public, cultural, and political figures.
The appeal underlines that the current international situation does not create conditions for a just solution of the Kosovo issue. Frozen conflict (similar to the Cyprus issue) is the only reasonable solution at the moment. "Future generations will feel bad if we leave this issue unresolved, but they will be unhappier if we disgrace ourselves and them forever by abandoning Kosovo and Metohija, giving up our honor and our Jerusalem. This has never been done by any nation. Agreeing to such a precedent, Serbia would brand itself and all Serbs with the stigma of infamy and would inflict a fatal blow to themselves," the authors of the statement noted.
In their view, negotiations with representatives of Kosovo Albanians need to continue, but without deadlines and preconditions, leading them under the auspices of the United Nations until a final decision is reached in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, UNSCR 1244 and international law.
One of the signatories of the declaration, Metropolitan bishop of Montenegro and the Littoral Amfilohije Radović, in an interview with the Montenegrin media on Jan. 7, expressed fear that the policy of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic leads to "betrayal of Serbia and Kosovo." According to him, "The appeal in defense of Kosovo and Metohija" appeared due to the existing "distrust and political shenanigans.”
"Everyone knows well what the position of our main enemies, NATO and the US, towards Montenegro and Serbia. They managed to force the Montenegrin authorities to abandon the origins of the Montenegrin state. Now they claim this from Serbia and Vučić. Unfortunately, the path that Vučić chose in his machinations and distrust in his steps became the reason for drawing up the appeal," Metropolitan Amfilohije explained in an interview to the Montenegrin TV channel Nova TV.
The statement of Metropolitan Amfilohije already made the Serbian leadership respond. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlović declared on January 8 that Vučić is "the last person in Serbia, about whom it can be said that he neglects Kosovo and the interests of Serbian citizens living in its territory." Vučić himself declined to comment on the statement of the Metropolitan until January 14, when he will appear on air of the state television channel with a response to accusations about his activities and the work of his team, the Serbian RTS television channel reports.
As EADaily reported earlier, there is a so-called internal dialogue in Serbia about the future of Kosovo and Metohija, which was initiated by Aleksandar Vucic in the summer of 2017. The president of Serbia, he said, will put forward his proposals on resolving the Kosovo issue in the spring of 2018.