We learnt our lesson and cannot call anyone a traitor or a patriot anymore "We already took note that we must do everything to avoid divisions in the Serbian community, in spite of that very fact being somebody's plain and clear objective, and especially Pristina's objective. Statements of the so-called Kosovo Prime Minister best illustrate how the current situation is used to generate rifts in the Serbian community," Bogdanovic said.
The existence of new Serbian institutions will probably cause a split among the Serbs?
Precisely, but we must do everything to avoid conflicts and prevent attempts to close the Serbian institutions.
What will that exactly look like?
We must talk to everyone, especially the Serbs. My obligation and the obligation of each member of the Government is to talk in a constructive manner to all relevant political factors in Kosovo and Metohija and not do anything that can harm the Serbian community.
Will the new Serbian institutions be a relevant factor?
Those aren’t Serbian institutions but Albanian institutions because they were elected under the laws and the constitution of the so-called state of Kosovo.
Aleksandar Vucic is already calling them “the Thaci’s Serbs”.
I will not use such a phrase, in my opinion there have been enough splits and tensions among the Serbs. We are Serbs and should not be divided into patriots and traitors. It could be that perhaps these people thought that they were doing something good for the Serbs, but the fact is that they weren’t. But differing opinions and actions are not a reason anyone should be discriminated or underestimated.
What will then be your relation to them?
For us the only legitimate representatives are the ones elected in Serbian elections.
Does this mean that there will be no cooperation with these other institutions and the Serbs who sit in them?
Certainly not, nor can they expect to represent the Serbian community. You cannot be a relevant representative of the Serbian community with only 5 percent of the voters, while there are those who received 40-50 percent in May 2008.
They say that voter turnout in Gračanica reached 23 percent.
Te papers say so, but there were numerous manipulations. And this is coming from those who participated in these elections and who do not recognize the establishing of local self-government.
You mean Momčilo Trajković?
Momčilo and all the other representatives, the ``St. Vitus Day``Coalition, the Serbian Democratic Party and others. They all concluded that there were bribery and thefts. Nevertheless, the situation is more complex now. Regardless of the number, it is still an indicator that a certain number of Serbs put their trust in someone else and not the legitimate representatives. And of course, now we have a different situation, regardless of the voter turnout number, they have the legitimacy, but do not have the credibility to represent our people.
President Tadić spoke the other day of an innovative approach to solving issues in Kosovo. How will this new approach reflect in your ministry?
We were much more present in Kosovo in the past year, we opened offices and people are closer to solving their problems. Unfortunately, the problems in the last ten years piled up so it is impossible to solve them in a year or two. However, it is up to us to solve everyday problems that the Serbian community is facing in a responsible way. The obligation of this state is to take care of every citizen that remained to live in Kosovo and Metohia.
Those who turned out at the November elections are among these citizens.
We will talk with each Serb because it is impossible to separate people in any way. It is our obligation to talk to everyone in Kosovo and help them all in the same way. For, we cannot separate those who voted from our ethnic community. We have to learn the lesson for the future. No one can be declared a traitor or a patriot, or be rigidly compartmentalized. We must learn from the experience we had in the past 10 years. If we took more notice, if some people have not been denounced, we could have had a better situation today.
Then the State Secretary in your ministry Oliver Ivanović was right when he said that the government policy towards Kosovo must be reviewed?
Our policy is absolutely clear and principled. In the past year and a half we already modified our policy; we are no more rigid, conservative. We solve problems in a pragmatic way now, cooperating with both the international community and the local Serbs, in order to ensure that these people survive in their centuries-old homes.
Are you saying that you are already applying this innovative way of work?
Absolutely. However, it is impossible to achieve results that we all expect in only a year. Very little has been done in this field in the past 10 years. Up to now, a person’s party affiliation has been observed more. Now to us all people are the same, regardless of their party affiliation, political orientation.
And regardless of whether they voted in the elections called by Pristine?
We took a completely clear position on that and there was no dilemma.
UNMIK – Kosovo
After the meeting with the UNMIK chief, Lamberto Zannier, you stated that the uncertainties which existed up to now would be solved through better communication. What is behind this diplomatic wording?
Unfortunately, we focused more attention on cooperation with the EULEX in the past year. We maintained contacts with the UNMIK but not often enough so as to clarify and resolve certain things. One of them is that UNMIK must abide by the Resolution 1244, under which the participation and representation of Kosovo in regional meetings must be in the presence of UNMIK and it is only the UNMIK with the authority to close contracts with international representatives.