Igor and Slavko Simic, deputies from the Serb List party, which unites popularly elected representatives of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, paid an “official visit to Washington” at the end of July. According to the party’s press office, they had “important meetings” with senior State Department officials, as well as with representatives of the “Serbian Caucus” in the US Congress. For example, with Gabriel Escobar, deputy assistant secretary of state and special representative for the Western Balkans. In the patriotic space, the story caused at least bewilderment and at most resonance.
It looks strange when deputies of a political association fully controlled by Belgrade suddenly go to Washington “on their own”, without the accompaniment of top officials. Naturally, the trip cannot fail to be coordinated with the administration of the Serbian president. However, for ordinary people, the doors and keyholes of big politics are closed – we can only guess “what was it”?
The MPs did not specify who is the organiser of their trip. Recently, a four-member delegation of Serbian civil society from Kosovo visited Washington. At that time, the trip was organised by the Atlantic Council. This time the trip again looks like a “goodwill gesture” to show the willingness of the old white gentlemen to condescend to the unfortunate Kosovo Serbs. However, no one from the White House or Congress went to Kosovo to talk to the people (especially in the north, where passions have not subsided just in recent months), but only two deputies were called to Washington. Apparently, they explained there what absolutely must not be done, what must be done and how to end the escalation (spoiler: to silence the Kosovo Serbs and “calm down”).
Now, by all means, Serbian MPs should be taken to Moscow and Beijing to remind them of the need to cling to resolution 1244, which upholds the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. Demonstrative foot-stomping, with the abandonment of Parliament, the police and the boycott of elections, does not solve the problems of the Serbian people in Kosovo, but only worsens their situation. In that regard, Serbs simply need to hold on with their teeth to any institutional solutions and international right-wing acts that protect the province and them personally.
Symbolically, it has been exactly two months since the seizure of municipal buildings in the north of the province by the Kosovo Special Police to bring new Albanian mayors to power. This has caused new tensions in the north. While Pristina and Belgrade blame each other, the international community is demanding an urgent de-escalation of the crisis on the ground. Moreover, this is the ninth month since the majority of Serbs left Kosovo’s institutions (parliament, police and now municipal administrations). The focus is therefore on a three-point “European plan” for de-escalation, with demands for the relocation of Serb mayors to “alternative locations”, the withdrawal of special forces from the administrations of captured localities, and the commitment of local Serbs to participate unconditionally in new elections. According to the Bratislava agreement of 11 July, elections are to be organised “at the end of the summer season”. Could it be that the Simic brothers were called to Washington for another consultation on the eve of the election campaign? The very “pillar of world democracy” is crumbling the principles of democracy before our eyes.
Vladimir Basenkov, Southern News Service
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