Azem Vllasi: Comparing Kosovo and RS is nonsense, Belgrade benefits from tensions

Azem Vllasi, a lawyer, advisor to Kosovo President Hashim Thaci for relations with the countries of the region, Tito's youth leader, a high state and party official during Yugoslavia, spoke on N1's Pressing about the murder of SDP Civic Initiative leader Oliver Ivanovic, Kosovo, and comparisons with the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska.

He stated that comparisons between Kosovo and RS are nonsense and that it is unserious. He believes there is no chance of imitating RS in Kosovo.

- I think the person who said that is unserious. What kind of comparisons and nonsense is this - for RS to be included in resolving the problems between Kosovo and Serbia. These options are absurd. We heard the story that if Kosovo goes, then RS should be annexed to Serbia. These are stupidities and incomparable things. Kosovo has its own cultural and ethnic identity. It is a multi-ethnic state where Albanians are the majority. Just as Bosnia has its tradition and history from the early Middle Ages. RS was created, that's why they insist, when the war in Bosnia was declared - so that Bosnia would disappear as a state and the Bosniak people would disappear. To disrupt the cultural and ethnic identity of the state - Vllasi said.

He said there is no "chance of imitating RS in Kosovo".

- There are up to 90,000 or 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo. They are a minority in the northern part. Most of them, about 60 percent, live in other parts of Kosovo. What would that mean for Serbs in other parts of Kosovo, to retain autonomy like some local community in Serbia? There are no conditions for it to function as some kind of autonomous unit. Belgrade's next goal is to form a community of municipalities with a Serbian majority. Because of the Ahtisaari plan, we created four or five municipalities where there is a certain concentration of Serbs. Belgrade knows there will be no border changes. If Serbs need anything more through an association of municipalities, then Serbia has no business interfering. We have given them everything necessary. It is a community of Kosovo municipalities, and in Belgrade, they have changed it to a community of Serbian municipalities. That is a message that there is no place for others, really! There is no chance of imitating the RS entity in Kosovo - Vllasi believes.

Azem Vllasi himself was wounded in an assassination attempt in March last year in Pristina. Speaking about the assassination attempt on Ivanovic in January this year in Kosovska Mitrovica, Vllasi said that amateurs attacked him, while Oliver Ivanovic, unfortunately, was killed by real professionals. Vllasi called the assassination attempt he survived an "incitement of chaos in Kosovo" and a disturbance of the public in a still young state.

- Ivanovic was a target of certain Serbian circles, he himself spoke about it. The assassination attempt was carried out in such a way that he had no chance of surviving. All sorts of things happen in Mitrovica. Ivanovic himself stated in public appearances in the days leading up to it that the security situation in North Mitrovica was terribly difficult. His best man was killed four years before him. Oliver Ivanovic was not obedient to the Belgrade authorities. He belonged to that line of Kosovo Serbs who held the view that they would listen to Belgrade, that they would cooperate well, but that they should be in dialogue with Albanians, to resolve their problems and live more normally. Ivanovic was fiercely attacked by Belgrade propaganda - Vllasi said.

As he stated, none of the Albanians had any interest or need to shoot Ivanovic.

- I am deeply convinced that Serbs shot him. These are commissioned murders by certain circles. These are strange games, but calculated to constantly maintain tensions and, if possible, to reignite tensions in Kosovo. The two assassination attempts are unrelated. As for the instigators, they might be related - he stated.

What circles are those? Local, regional, or global?

- First and foremost, the authorities in Belgrade are interested in a volatile situation in Kosovo, for it to be dysfunctional, unstable, for there to be constant tensions, to prove that it is not a state at all. The Serbian circles that are currently in power, and which actually emerged from the political school of Milosevic, aim to keep the Kosovo issue alive, to claim that it is not resolved, that Kosovo is the southern Serbian province.

Why are there no investigation results in the case of Oliver Ivanovic's murder?

- Our investigative bodies have taken this as a priority issue. However, no other leads connect to Kosovo. The leads lead across the border into Serbia, and further, I don't know. Cooperation between Kosovo's investigative bodies and Serbia would shed light on this case more quickly. All signals indicate that the assassins of Oliver Ivanovic were out of Kosovo in less than half an hour, thus in Serbia, and possibly outside Serbia.