Life in Kosovo discusses about emergency situations
Tonight, Life in Kosovo will broadcast a debate on the emergency situations in our country.
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Every Thursday starting from 20:30, Radio Television Kosovo, RTK, broadcasts the TV debate show "Life in Kosovo", a joint production of BIRN and RTK.
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Life in Kosovo interviews Ivica Dacic and Zenun Pajaziti
29 October 2009 Life in Kosovo interviewed Serbia’s Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, and his Kosovan counterpart, Zenun Pajaziti, about burning issues in Kosovo-Serbia relations.
The main questions asked included: Is it possible to create a practical solution allowing Kosovo’s citizens to travel to Serbia? How will EU visa liberalisation affect the region? Will foreign passport holders be able to cross the border from Serbia into Kosovo without travelling via Macedonia?
When will Kosovo address the concerns regarding organised crime included in the EU’s progress report? How can Belgrade ask Europe to open its borders to Serbia’s citizens but at the same time prevent people with Kosovo passports, Kosovo car registrations and goods from Kosovo passing through Serbia? Will Kosovo become an isolated ghetto in the Balkans?
Host Jeta Xharra started by thanking Mr Dacic for agreeing to be interviewed, and then asked him to explore the changes Serbia’s citizens have seen because of the EU visa liberalisation process.
Mr Dacic said that “for many years, citizens from this region have faced isolation and many barriers to free movement. Maybe in this way a correction from the past has been made for our citizens.” He continued by saying that Serbia met all the conditions included on the visa-free travel ‘road map’.
On the question of how such changes could affect the region as a whole, Mr Dacic claimed that “we strongly believe that the future of the whole region involves the priority of [EU] integration.
However, this is different for each country as it depends on how well they fulfil the conditions set. For the stability of the region, it would be best if all countries in the region could join the visa liberalisation programme as soon as possible, naturally aiming at a future for them all in the European Union”.
He went on to say that if Serbia joins the ‘White Schengen list’, it will offer the governments in Albania and Bosnia help on how to meet the requirements for visa liberalisation.
Asked how the visa liberalisation process could affect Serbs in Kosovo and Bosnia, Mr Dacic replied that “there was a kind of a fear from the EU that Serbs living in Bosnia and Herzegovina might apply for Serbian citizenship.”
“However, many Croats have such an opportunity, and Croatia is much further along the road to EU integration. Serbs living in Bosnia and Croatia have no need to ask for [Serbian] citizenship because their countries of residence are moving forward as well,” said Dacic.
When talking about Kosovo, Mr Dacic stated that “as a territory of Serbia based on [UN Security Council Resolution] 1244, under the supervision of the United Nations, it didn’t pass through the liberalisation process dialogue.
The European Commission suggested to our Ministry of Internal Affairs that all residents that possessSerbian passports but live in Kosovo will be excluded from the visa liberalisation process.”
Another requirement for visa liberalisation in Serbia has been the maintenance of good relations with neighbours, including Kosovo, even though Belgrade does not recognise its independence.
Bearing in mind that the EU is one of the most significant sources of funds for Kosovo, Xharra asked Mr Dacic whether the dominant policy of Serbia’s interior ministry would be to obstruct or cooperate with Kosovo.
Mr Dacic replied that there is an agreement between the United States and the EU that no-one would be able to force Serbia, directly or indirectly, to recognise Kosovo’s independence.
On the other hand, Mr Dacic continued, Serbia’s path to the EU is separate from the question of Kosovo’s political status, while Belgrade would like the legality of Kosovo’s independence to be decided by the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
Thus, Mr Dacic argued, “we like to have good relations with our neighbours, but we still consider Kosovo as part of our territory”.
Following this, Jeta Xharra interviewed Kosovo’s minister of internal affairs, Zenun Pajaziti.
Welcoming Mr Pajaziti to the show, Xharra described the context of the discussions surrounding Kosovo’s visa process.
If the topic had been raised a week earlier, there would not have been a great deal of concern, she said, but following the tragic drowning of a number of Kosovo Albanians in the river Tisa while trying to illegally cross into Hungary, the need for freedom of travel is strong in the public mind.
Xharra then asked Mr Pajaziti whether he would be able to say when Kosovo would be eligible to join the ‘White Schengen List’ for visa-free travel to Europe. Mr Pajzaiti responded that the latest case was tragic, and actually worked against the government’s efforts on the liberalisation process.
He continued that he had recently had the opportunity to sign the first initiatives on the liberalisation process, which dealt with the repatriation of Kosovan migrants in the West. Mr Pajaziti pointed out that “we still don’t have a clear answer from EU officials when [Kosovo] will be able to join the visa liberalisation process.”
However, he claimed that it was encouraging that the EU’s feasibility study was positive about documents issued by Kosovo’s government, which Mr Pajaziti called a “step towards visa liberalisation”. Also, the government have started drafting strategies to facilitate progress, which must begin by “doing our homework”.
Asked what steps Kosovo must carry out, Mr Pajaziti replied that they include integrating border management, signing agreements on repatriation of citizens from European countries, developing a concrete strategy for fighting organised crime and corruption, passing a law on data protection, and ensuring the quality and security of documentation.
Asked how long this process could last, Mr Pajaziti said that “we are putting great effort into this process, and the reports sent to EU have been evaluated positively, so the process is going along the right path”.
Asked whether the interior ministry has made any steps towards finding agreement with Serbia to allow citizens from Kosovo to travel through their borders with a Kosovo passport, Mr Pajaziti said that “despite their political stance on our status, we try to maintain good minority perspectives, and are looking forward to some kind of agreement with Serbia in the near future, so that citizens can feel free rather than facing barriers to passing through their territory”.
After both interviews a video story was broadcast about justice in Kosovo. Isa Gacaferi, a BIRN journalist, presented the situation of the Municipal Court of Malisheve.
He described problems of nepotism, and also cases of laws being applied because those judging have an interest in the outcome.
Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20.
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
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