Internal Dialogue on Kosovo Turns Out to Be Hard Work for Serbia

The task force for providing support for Serbia's internal dialogue on Kosovo, the dialogue initiated by Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has held the first meeting.

After the meeting, the chairman of this group, Marko Djurovic, also head of the Government of Serbia's Kosovo Office, has said their task is “dialog on Kosovo through broader social discussion”.

“This is support for one of the most serious jobs Serbia has faced in recent years, Djuric has said of the role of the processing group, at the helm of which the Government of Serbia has appointed it on October 16th.

The working group makes up representatives of the ministries of the Government of Serbia, the Office for Co-operation with Civil Society, as well as the republican Secretariat for Law.

According to Djuriqi, the goal of the group's work is that through the competencies of all reactors represented by “see what those institutions, social groups and institutions are, which will help the state of Serbia strengthen institutional capacities to deal with the Kosovo issue”.

It must include state institutions, academic opinion, representatives of different civil society organisations and as many ordinary citizens as possible”, Djuric said, adding that more in the future will be spoken of in concrete ways of work.

It is expected that in the coming days it will be announced when the dialogue will formally begin and whose first invitations to consultations regarding Kosovo will be made.

Dusan Janjic of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, speaking of Radio Free Europe, considers that Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, with the formation of the working group, has relied on the capacities of the Government of Serbia and the Office for Kosovo of this Government, which, according to him, is rational, especially because administrative and technical works have exploited people who are in the course of this issue and with the way of work. But there are also limitations in this pattern, he says.

If this is an administrative and bureaucratic team, which would have to be according to what his task is to first organize logistics and convey what is happening under the internal dialogue process, then the problem is the team's convenience. That is because the team is led by the politician, the party's deputy chairman and representative of a policy that would have to be seriously examined in domestic dialogue. Otherwise, internal dialogue does not make sense”, Janjic said.

Forming the task force has preceded the Serbian president's statement, Aleksandar Vuciq, which he had made in July for the start of domestic dialogue for Kosovo.

Vuciq, meanwhile, has said he expects with a proposal for Kosovo to be released in March 2018. So far he hasn't found out much what that proposal is, but as he has said, the solution is not “as in the myths and conflicts”, but “as in giving up national interests”.

Ynjiq says that when Vuciq had for the first time warned internal dialogue, he had said that it is desirable to reach a national consensus, but, as he says, Vuciq has come closer to reality and that proves the formation of the working group.

The internal “dialogue, in essence, will be transformed into a professional consultation of President and Government and Prime Minister, with the working group and people they will choose. It means, this is the first restrictive factor and it should not be expected that the opposition will enter. This is not enough for resolving the Kosovo problem. Can these professional-political consultations advance the policy that has been led so far, it could also happen if one wants to invite the so-called dialogue, which is Aleksandar Vuciq”, Janjic said.

From the warning of domestic dialogue to the present day, this topic has prompted different reactions to the opinion, from those that “Vuciki's goal is to create alibia for accepting Kosovo's independence”, through the support of Brussels, to the point of view, as did Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej, who believes that “for the Kosovo issue, Vuciq thinks the same as the Serbian people and the Church, as well as relying on Russia that will help Serbia preserve what it has always been.<3>

Internal dialogue on Kosovo, according to earlier warnings, has had to begin in September, but has been postponed for October. Turnout, in principle, has so far been acknowledged by the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, nongovernmental organisations and a part of the opposition.