First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic participated at today’s UN Security Council meeting on the work of UNMIK.

After the meeting the Serbian Foreign Minister stressed that it was extremely important for Serbia that the UN Security Council constantly and continuously monitored developments in Kosovo and Metohija, and that Serbia was committed to maintaining the institution of quarterly reporting, although some countries argued that it should be done twice, instead of four times a year.

“In his today’s report the UN Secretary-General and the discussions of the Council members recognized that it was very important to establish a community of Serbian municipalities as soon as possible, because they all understood that it was a priority point as far as the implementation of the Brussels Agreement was concerned.

All UNSC member states insisted on the soonest possible creation of a Special Court for to try cases of the war crimes committed by the UCK/KLA in Kosovo and Metohija and in connection with the Dick Marty report.

We emphasized the constructive approach adopted by Serbia, when it comes to continuing the dialogue, that we were willing to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue. We also pointed to the major security issues and problems related to the return of internally displaced persons. More than 200,000 people have the status of internally displaced persons and cannot return to their homes in Kosovo and Metohija. In the 16 years since the war ended, only two percent of people had benefited from a sustainable return to Kosovo and Metohija.

Our position is that the Security Council should continue to meet on this issue. On behalf of Serbia, I commended the UN Mission, considering that there should be an international presence in Kosovo and Metohija, unlike Hashim Thaci, who asked for its closing, arguing that now that Kosovo was an independent state there was no longer the need for the presence of that mission there.

Fully in accordance with resolution 1244, we believe that the issue of KiM's status is far from being resolved, and on the other hand the political and security situation, and the situation with regard to human rights, the rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians is far from being assessed positively. That is why the international presence, as a kind of guarantor, is still necessary in KiM and we will strongly advocate for it”, concluded Minister Dacic