Several representatives of the Kosovo Serbs, respectively those of the block that lost general elections in Serbia, created on Saturday in northern Mitrovica the “Assembly of the Union of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo.”

 

The assembly consists of 45 representatives, elected in Serbia's local elections, which despite being considered illegitimate by local and international institutions were also held on Kosovo’s territory.

Participating at the establishment of this assembly inevitably was the so called Serb Minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samarxhiq, who encouraging the participants, said that "despite the declarations of international representatives that this assembly is symbolic, it will have real power" and that, according to him, it "will represent the rule of the Serb state in Kosovo."    

However, not all Kosovo Serb representatives welcomed the creation of the “Assembly of the Union of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo.”  

President of the Council of Democratic Party in Kosovo, Goran Bogdanoviq, stated that representatives of this party will not participate in the so called Serb founding assembly. “We will wait the creation of the new government in Serbia for it to decide whether the creation of that assembly will contribute to the existence of Serb community in Kosovo, or whether it even damages the fight for the protection of Kosovo and the prosperity of Serb community,” stated Bogdanoviq.

Meanwhile the leader of the Serb List for Kosovo, Oliver Ivanoviq, calls such an action “insignificant” because it was done by opposition parties, Serb Radical and Democratic Party of Serbia, for the sake of a small group of people.  “They will try to find ways to build an institution which will oppose the new coalition in Belgrade. The pro-European government in Belgrade is also sensitive regarding the Kosovo issue and it is clear that they are trying to act as an opposition force, which will be absolutely insignificant,” said Ivanoviq.

Ivanoviq thinks that such steps should not be taken, because such an institution will not be a partner neither of International Community, Kosovar institutions nor of the new coalition government in Belgrade. He stresses that such an assembly is being formed for the sake of personal interests of a small group of people so they can secure posts. “No, I don’t think that it will protect the rights of Serbs in Kosovo. But it will be another attempt at creating a new organization. You should know that these people since 1999 have created 10 similar organizations; always with different names, but the same people, so nothing important has happened,” said Ivanoviq.

Head of the Serb National Council, Rada Trajkoviq, told Belgrade news agency FoNet that the Serb Assembly established on Saturday is more in the function of splitting Kosovo Serbs than offering a solution to their problems. “Assembly has shown its weakness by taking into account the fact there was no representatives of Gorani, Bosniaks or Roma in it,” Trajkoviq said. She also added that the Assembly did not gather representatives of the Serbian parties that are about to form the new government in Belgrade.

The first document of this parallel institution is the constitutive document through which was denounced the independence of Kosovo.

“Assembly of the Union of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo” was constituted along with the 619th anniversary of the loss of the Second Battle of Kosovo, which was accompanied with shouting, nationalistic songs and t-shirts saying “Kosovo is Serbia,” from hundreds of Serbs gathered from as far away as Serbia.