Kosovo Reciprocity ʹ Serbia for Visits of Senior Officials

The agreement on visits by senior officials between Pristina and Belgrade, which has entered into force since January 2014, is often uncompliable, which has also been witnessed in practice. Signatories often accuse each other of failing to implement the agreement, while in some cases the European Union's assistance has been requested as a facilitator and guarantor of implementing agreements between Pristina and Belgrade to mediate.

The form of realisation of top officials from the two countries is specified in this agreement. In the first category are the visits of presidents, mayors, prime ministers, foreign ministers, interior and defence ministers.

But beyond that agreement, both in Pristina and Belgrade, there are decisions and lists under which many of the two countries' top officials are unable to make visits. So, as long as Kosovo and Serbia fail to reach a final agreement on normalisation of reports, this agreement, as well as some already signed, is in some cases unmet.

In the Government of Kosovo, there is a list of persons, including current or former officials or officials of Serbia, as well as government posts that are consistently rejected any request to visit Kosovo.

Meanwhile, in Belgrade, many of the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who today hold top leadership positions in Kosovo, cannot travel to Serbia, as they are sentenced in absentia by the justice authorities there. Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj are also among the persons Belgrade has on the required and sentenced persons' lists in absentia. Even the movement outside Kosovo of former KLA members has been often challenged in other European countries, due to the issuance of Serbian arrest warrants through INTERPOL.

And in Pristina, except for persons deemed unwanted, the Kosovo government still has the decision signed three years ago, under which Serbian defence and interior ministers are barred from entering Kosovo.

Kosovo is currently operating with a government in resignation, but the decisions that were made earlier are in effect.

Deputy Prime Minister in Kosovo's resignation Fatmir Limaj told Radio Free Europe that the Kosovo Foreign Ministry is competent to decide on the issue. Kosovo is supportive of the free movement, Limaj said, also recalling the fact that official Pristina is implementing reciprocity policy in relation to Serbia.

Kosovo has been, is and will always be to remove any obstacle, but that depends on the other side. While there are Serbian officials who threaten the stability of our country, threaten war, even with the military, deny the crimes committed... [these] are issues that make this communication difficult, so to speak, not to prevent and create obstacles to the free movement as it is called. Therefore, Kosovo's government, in this case the Foreign Ministry, treats it separately”, Limaj said.

Even Kosovo's outgoing Foreign Minister, Behgjet Pacolli, whom Serbian authorities had not allowed in a case of visit to Serbia, has clarified the rules under which a visit of a Serbian official to Kosovo is allowed. According to him, Kosovo is a free and democratic country that guarantees freedom of movement of people, but cannot allow visits aimed at internal destabilisation.

The “in Kosovo will be welcome every friend and anyone who wants to come visit and develop relations with Kosovo. But, Kosovo will always be closed to someone who has attempted, decalating interethnic relations that for us represents a sacred symbol that is protected with all of Kosovo's laws and Constitution”, Pacolli said.

“No one has the right to come to Kosovo to incite hatred against people”, he said.

According to the chief of Kosovo diplomacy, visits by Serbian officials are not allowed only when it is proven that they come to Kosovo with biased reasons.

For the number, Serbia is evidently leading with the realisation of visits to Kosovo, especially in the northern part. Kosovo officials, on the other hand, mostly travel to Belgrade only for participation in any international conference held under the direction of the EU.

The best-known case so far from the history of these visits was the free visit to Kosovo by the head of the Office for Kosovo to the Government of Serbia, Marko Djuric, on March 26th 2018, when he was arrested and then deported to Serbia by Kosovo's rule authorities.

Long ago, the Government of Kosovo had confirmed to Radio Free Europe that dozens of people are involved in the list of unwanteds -- <x0non grata” -- who cannot enter, visit or stay in Kosovo. They are mainly former Serbian state officials, or even current ones.

The list Kosovo Foreign Ministry has with the names of people who cannot enter Kosovo, begins by the name of Serbian ultranationalist politician Vojislav Seshel, sentenced by The Hague tribunal, followed by Lubusha Divkovic, former Serbian Army General, then Serbian Interior and Defence Minister, to Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabiq, and others.

This list, according to foreign affairs ministry officials, is constantly updated and fulfilled.