Global Policy Forum

Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi said Friday (6 May) he is willing to hold talks with his Serbian counterpart, Vojislav Kostunica, on issues of a technical nature. "I could invite him [Kostunica] to a meeting and I am very interested in meeting him," Kosovo media quoted Kosumi as saying. "I have not heard that he had asked to meet me, but I would like to meet him and discuss many issues. I have not received any real invitation from him for a meeting."

The Kosovo Albanian leader stressed however that he is not interested in holding unproductive talks with Kostunica that only seek to boost either side's image or to help score political points. "I would like to know how he sees the issue of technical dialogue. I am very interested that this dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia should be fruitful and bear results, not just words and propaganda, because that would contribute to the resolution of the problems in the future, too," Kosumi was quoted as saying.

Constructive and continuing dialogue between Kosovo's provisional institutions and their counterparts in Belgrade over practical issues is one of the benchmarks Kosovo must meet before talks on its final status may begin. During a formal, high-level meeting in Vienna in mid-October 2003, Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders agreed to launch working-group talks on technical matters of mutual concern. The expert discussions that have taken place since then have focused on everyday issues in three areas -- missing people, the return of those displaced in the 1998-1999 conflict, and electricity.

Since the Vienna meeting, however, there have been no face-to-face talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders. "Any meeting between the two prime ministers is political and there is no way to avoid that and I am not trying to," Kosumi noted Friday. "I have never said that I want to avoid that, but I have said that I will not meet to discuss the final status of Kosovo. I am prepared to discuss any other issue with Serbian politicians and find solutions to concrete problems."

A similar statement came from UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen, who said Friday that both Kosumi and Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova were ready to meet with their Serbian counterparts, Kostunica and Boris Tadic, within the framework of an international forum.

Quoting Dusan Janjic, director of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, Belgrade-based Radio B92 reported that this would happen in the second half of June. A report in Kosovo's Koha Ditore daily on Monday, however, suggested that Rugova has not yet confirmed his readiness to meet with Tadic. "There is nothing official as yet," UNMIK spokesperson Remi Dourlot told the paper.

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