Experts: Montenegro has the right to block demarcation sending to Arbitraz

International relations recognisers say Kosovo cannot unilaterally send the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro to international arbitration. According to them, the demarcation can only go to Arbitrazh if there is reconciliation between the two sides, if Montenegro would agree to that, respectively.

Africa Hoti, professor of International Law at the University of Pristina, told Radio Free Europe that Pristina authorities should talk to Montenegro about remaining recordable issues, including the Arbitrazhi issue.

“I think that Kosovo, not itself, but along with Montenegro, can send it to Arbitraz on those cases when a common language cannot be found a deal, and in order for the issue not to avoid the judicial process, which means a process of slightly deeper, at great cost, at time, both sides can agree to send the issue before an impartial international Arbitrax1>, Hoti said.

Hoti said the decision to send the issue to Arbitrazh could come to the issue only if the new Commission formed by the Government of Kosovo finds new facts which have been unknown to the preliminary commission, and which may have impact on the final issue.

He says that if Montenegro does not accept the new facts, international Arbitrage is avoided.

“In such a case, Arbitrage is avoided, eventually one side could follow the judicial process by making lawsuits before the tribunal, which in this case Kosovo does not have that right”, Hoti said.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has said he is awaiting the results of the State Commission for Border Marking and Maintaining. According to Haradinaj, the demarcation of the border with Montenegro would likely end in Arbitrazh, since, as he put it, the Parliament does not have the votes for ratification of the current agreement, subject in August 2015.

Vjosa Osmani, chairman of the Commission for Foreign Affairs in the Kosovo Assembly by the Democratic League of Kosovo, told Free Radio Europe that an issue could be sent to Arbitrazh only with the reconciliation of both sides. It stresses that reconciliation of Montenegro is also required to exploit this alternative approach to resolving conflicts.

“This means that without Montenegro's reconciliation, there will be no opportunity to use Arbitrage or any other method for resolving conflicts. Therefore, it is essential that if the Government aims at such a solution to the Demarket issue, it must use all of its energy in contact with Montenegro, so that this state will be convinced that the issue will be sent to Arbitrax1>, Osmani said.

The signatories of the existing border demarcation agreement with Montenegro, the former foreign minister then, now the country's president, Hashim Thaci, has called on him not to waste time on the issue.

President Thaci, in his Facebook post, said that “is the time for state institutions to overcome this situation by acting responsibly. It cannot continue indefinitely for individuals assigned to the state to treat as private property”, Thaci wrote.

The institutions of the Republic of Kosovo, Thaci has added, must make the decision on demarcation in accordance with obligations and procedures, “, without being influenced by individuals appointed”.