Vienna Talks Set To Begin-Albanians Will Ask For Independence

Kostunica and Tadic in Vienna on July 24

Belgrade, July 21, 2006 - Director of the Serbian government's Office of Media Relations Srdjan Djuric said today that Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will participate in the first round of talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija that will be held in Vienna on July 24.
Djuric said that every following round of the status talks will be attended by either the Serbian president or the prime minister. Since the question of Kosovo-Metohija is of the utmost importance for Serbia because it involves 15% of its territory, and precisely that part of the territory which is the cradle of the Serbian state, the main negotiators decided that the first round of talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija should be attended by both Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Serbian President Boris Tadic, Djuric said. Serbia has requested direct talks with representatives of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo-Metohija because we believe that direct talks are the best solution for reaching a compromise, the Director of the Office of Media Relations pointed out. He added that Belgrade is confident that Marti Ahtisaari, as a representative of the United Nations in charge for the negotiations on Kosovo, will enable that the upcoming talks be constructive and result in a solution based on compromise.

Albanians Seek The End and Beginning of Independence

Albanians during historic direct Serbian and Albanian face to face talks have insisted that theywant nothing less than independence for KOSOVO, ignoring the decades of oppression committed by the Albanian Muslim forces during WWII with the Utassai w/Ante Pavelic, and during the communist rule and right after the Fall of Tito's regime.

Albanian officials cite 10 years of Serbian reclamation struggles under the misguided Slobadan Milosevic as a sufficient reason to claim autonomous status in the area. Indigenous Serbian populations have been subjected to forced relocation as the Albanians illegally homestead most of Kosovo, sometimes directly forcing people to flee, at other times using already established discrimination policies initiated by the Ottoman Empire. Albanians have said that they have a compelling claim for the area from the time of the 4th centuries. One source disputes this saying that there were several types of peoples in the area at that time
and that the Orthodox Church was established there also since the 4th century, with monks from that era named Phlor and Laur being representatives of the Kosovo region.
The President of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdur, according to a Reuters article said today during talks "that independence [for Albanians] was "the beginning and end of our positions."
Again the Reuters story gives a skewed rendering of historic precedence in the area. You can read this story in its original form at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060724/wl_nm/serbia_kosovo_dc_4?submit=Done.