Brnabic: Germany’s red lines are burdening the negotiation process

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic was the only speaker at the final panel of the 8^th Belgrade Security Forum. She talked about the „burden“ which „Kosovo represents for the Serbian government“ and assessed that the current frozen conflict in Kosovo is creating „schizophrenic situations“ in the government’s work – as she has to go from a meeting on Serbia’s full membership in CERN to meetings during which she listens to reports on armed threats. Armed conflicts are a policy of the 19^th century and that is what the frozen conflict in Kosovo brings to us, the Prime Minister assessed.

Serbs left the KSF because they realized that they were giving assistance to individual political interests

Answering a question from the audience on why Serbia „sabotages the multi-ethnicity“ of the Kosovo Security Forces by pressuring Serbs to leave this formation, Brnabic said that posing this question in such way is „too simplified“.

She stated that the special units of the Kosovo police, as well as members of the KSF, „attacked“ North Mitrovica and „beat people“ who participate in the Kosovo government in order to prevent a meeting to discuss resolutions of problems of the Kosovo Serb community. With this, this formation has shown that it is not there to protect all citizens, but that it is a formation that protects individual political interests, she added.

Brnabic also talked about the „unilateral decision“ of the Kosovo Assembly to start the process of transforming the KSF into an army „without any regard to Serbs and other minorities,“ – which „is sending a message to Serbia which does not contribute to dialogue“.

While answering the question whether Germany’s firm attitude towards the exchange of territory makes her task more difficult, Brnabic replied that this was true to some extent.

Pandora’s box opened in 2008

„This is a very complex, emotional question. We are far from any solution and we do not even know if we will even be able to come up with a solution that is acceptable to everyone. Putting red lines around such a complex and difficult process is burdensome,“ the Serbian Prime Minister said.

Brnabic assessed that the arguments for opening Pandora’s box cannot be applied to the current phase of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. The Prime Minister believes that Pandora’s box was opened in 2008 by the unilateral declaration of the independence of Kosovo, which „many hurried to support.“ She recalled that Kosovo’s independence was declared without „at least the perceived democratic principles such as the referendum“.

Kosovo was a province, not a republic

She also pointed out that the Kosovo case could not be compared with other republics of the former Yugoslavia since Kosovo never had the status of a republic – as it was an autonomous province and an integral part of Serbia during the time of Yugoslavia.