Searching for Solutions for Kosovo's North (ENGLISH) - Cigonline.net

Pržno Roundtable
Introduction
The Council for Inclusive Governance (CIG) organized on March 3-4, 2012 in
Pržno, Montenegro, its second roundtable for Serbia’s and Kosovo’s political
party and government representatives. The first meeting took place in Vienna
in December 2011. Participants included members of Serbia’s Democratic
Party, United Regions of Serbia, Socialist Party of Serbia, Liberal Democratic
Party, Serbian Progressive Party, and Kosovo’s Democratic Party of Kosovo,
Democratic League of Kosovo, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Independent
Liberal Party, United Serb List, and a number of analysts from Belgrade and
Pristina. Swiss and EU diplomats took part as well.
The roundtable was funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
The agenda for the two-day meeting consisted of three sessions and included
topics on cooperation between Belgrade and Pristina and the crisis in the north.
Participants debated the current communication between Belgrade and Pristina
and suggested new ways to intensify it at all levels. They also addressed the
situation in Kosovo’s north. They recommended that Pristina and the Serbs in
the north should begin as soon as possible a dialogue to stabilize the situation
and resolve the crisis.
The following is a summary of the roundtable discussions. To encourage frank
discussions, remarks have not been attributed to specific discussants and CIG
asks for the understanding of those whose remarks have not been fully captured
in this brief report. The participants took part in the roundtable in their personal
capacities and their positions do not necessarily reflect those of organizations
they represent. The participants have not reviewed the report, and CIG takes the
responsibility for its content.
Belgrade, Pristina, and Kosovo’s North
Steps toward resolving the crisis in the north; Serbian elections in Kosovo; the
impact of the Serb referendum in the north; the impact of the ongoing EUsponsored
Pristina-Belgrade dialogue
A number of participants identified four actors as key to resolving the dispute
in the north of Kosovo: Belgrade, Pristina, the international community, and the
Serbs in the north.
Serbs in the north have been organizing themselves through such actions as
erecting barricades to “defend themselves from another eventual Kosovo police
intervention,” said a Serb participant, and added that they also organized a
referendum that showed that the overwhelming majority is against integration
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