Belgrade - Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanovic met with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation, led by the OSCE Chairman and Head of Lithuanian diplomacy, Mr. Audronius Ajubalis. The meeting was also attended by the OSCE Ambassador in Belgrade Dimitrios Kypreos. Bogdanovic and OSCE Chairman Audronius Ajubalis both expressed satisfaction with good cooperation, based on status neutrality.

Bogdanovic conveyed to the OSCE Chairperson his concerns over Pristina’s attempts to remake the ethnic composition of Kosovo and Metohija by the ‘albanization’ of Serbian surnames in personal documents issued by the Kosovo authorities. Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanovic requested that Mr. Audronius Ajubalis uses his authority to prevent such practices, along with other methods and attempts employed by Pristina to assimilate the Kosovo Serbs. Such actions on the part of Pristina harm the ongoing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and the arrangements achieved so far and do not contribute to the establishment of trust, said Minister Bogdanovic.

Minister for Kosovo and Metohija in particular praised the OSCE engagement in building trust between different ethnic communities in the southern province and urged for more active involvement of OSCE in the process of reconciliation in Kosovo and Metohija. Mr. Ajubalis fully agreed with the position of Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanovic that trust is one of the prerequisites for the community development in Kosovo, and pledged that OSCE would intensify the process of building trust between different ethnic communities in Kosovo. On his part, the chairman of the OSCE, Mr. Audronius Ajubalis praised the approach to the Republic of Serbia and Pristina representatives in the process of building mutual trust, gradually moving from resolving technical problems towards addressing the general issues.

Mr. Audronius Ajubalis agreed with the Minister Bogdanovic that the return of internally displaced persons and the restitution of their property are crucial for building trust between Serbs and Albanians. Mr. Ajubalis expressed concern in regards to difficulties involved in collecting the documents of the internally displaced persons residing in the territory of Montenegro. Bogdanovic acquainted Mr. Audronius Ajubalis with steps undertaken so far to resolve the issue.

Minister for Kosovo and Metohija and the OSCE chairman agreed that the issue of return of the IDP’s as well as restitution of their usurped property are influenced considerably by the good cooperation and communication between the OSCE mission in Belgrade and Pristina.