Škeljzen Malići: Vučić surpasses even Milošević's arrogance

BEOGRAD, (Patria) - The authorities in Serbia are not answering the question of why I was banned from entering Serbia because they have no answer. That is, they are showing arrogant irresponsibility because they did something that cannot be justified even by the argument of 'discretionary right', said Škeljzen Malići, a philosopher and writer from Kosovo, whom Serbian authorities banned from entering Serbia at the beginning of the week.

Malići went to Belgrade as a participant in the promotion of the book 'Case Study Pertej', which includes the systematisation of archives, memory and historicisation of 20 years of cooperation between artists and cultural workers from Serbia and Kosovo.

- Personally, I was not particularly affected; on the contrary, I felt relief that I did not have to bump along the very neglected Serbian roads for five or six hours in a minibus... I do not care much about visiting Vučić's and Dačić's Serbia; I would rather bypass and ignore it, but there is also a normal Serbia, people with whom I have been cooperating since the 1980s, for whom it is still worth working on real, everyday normalisation of relations, because, after all, we are neighbours, we share the same space, and we cannot leave our fates to those who advocate eternal war - Malići pointed out.

He notes that this probably also hides the answer to the question of why, recently, the Serbian authorities decided to reinstate a strict and arrogant border regime, violating the agreement on freedom of movement.

- You know that my case is not isolated; entry into Serbia has been banned for Kosovar athletes who had matches with Serbian clubs or were supposed to participate in international championships. A few weeks ago, a group of young Kosovar artists who were going to the now traditional festival of cultural cooperation 'Miredita/Dobar dan' were stopped and harassed. The authorities in Serbia apparently want to obstruct and end all forms of cultural and other cooperation. I do not know if this is done directly from the top of the government, or from circles that do not want any agreement and normalisation of relations with Kosovo - says Malići.

Malići commented on situations in which Vučić interprets almost all internal circumstances and events that are not pleasant and positive examples of his rule as pressure on him because of Kosovo. On one hand, as Vučić said, there are Serbian, and on the other, Albanian thugs. Also, European and American ones are not missing.

- Since the time of Boris Tadić, the government in Serbia has been trying to pursue policies of double tracks and standards, proclaiming mantras like 'Both the European Union and Kosovo', or 'Both the EU and Russia'. It is like having a train composition with two locomotives, one pulling to the West, the other to the East. When the train is stationary or one of the locomotives is tactically disconnected or not at full throttle, these mantras can be manipulated.

However, such policies practically lead to schizophrenia when a decision needs to be made about which way to go. Tactically, this schizophrenic strategy can bring some gain if you use it to blackmail one of the sides into making certain concessions before you definitively buy a ticket, in this case, to the West. But the time for decisions comes and the game must stop. Serbia, since the time of Milošević, has agreed to games of negotiations and agreements, but in the end, it gave up and rejected compromise solutions, both the Rambouillet agreement and the Vienna agreement, and it seems it will reject in the same way the conclusion of the Brussels Agreement, which should lead to the normalisation of relations with Kosovo as an independent state - believes Škeljzen Malići.

He adds that the fact that Vučić calls all partners in the dialogue thugs, including the USA and the EU, does not bode well, 'surpassing even Milošević's arrogance'.

- However, Vučić may be acting, using strong language for the domestic public, to later have an alibi: I tried everything but, behold, it did not work against the world's powerful.

Asked what he expects from the continuation of the dialogue in Brussels, Malići expresses the conviction that the 'technical' dialogue on issues of normalisation of relations is practically finished, meaning only their full implementation remains, while for a comprehensive and binding political agreement, substantive preparations and proposals for compromise variants have been made, around which the battle is now being fought.

To the question of whether he assumes that a period of solutions follows, or, on the contrary, an accumulation of new problems in Albanian-Serbian relations by political elites, the Kosovar philosopher and artist says: We should move towards solutions, we should not waste more time, we are already far behind, not only Kosovo and Serbia but the entire region.

- Albanian-Serbian relations are the most delicate point of regional stability and security. Now is the opportunity to permanently improve relations and make them good neighbourly. Of course, you are right when you say that there are forces that want to accumulate problems in order to bring the 'frozen conflict' to thawing and explosion. When Dimitrije Tucović, a little over a hundred years ago, warned the then Serbian political elite that the ambition of conquering and subjugating Albanian territories was a great delusion, it seems he was right when he predicted that this delusion would last a whole century - believes Škeljzen Malići.

He notes that for the final solution of the Kosovo issue, there are draft plans and frameworks for a solution.

- The key thing is full recognition of Kosovo, i.e., membership in the UN. On the other hand, the concession, since the Ahtisaari plan, is the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities. It seems that two things are being considered as most important: What status Kosovo will have in the UN, observer or full, and what competencies the CSM will have, executive or only advisory. Other options such as exchange of territories or partition of Kosovo are out of the question.

Perhaps this Gordian knot will be resolved in principle at the announced meeting of the American and Russian presidents next month... - concluded Malići.