Raskovic-Ivic Comments

Serbia won’t allow division of Kosovo, says Minister
13 August 2006 15:49 Source: Beta
ŠABAC -- Dragan Jočić said that Serbia will not allow Kosovo to be divided.“Today the battle for Kosovo is being led at the discussions at which Serbia is stating that it will not accept anything that any free democratic country would not accept. Serbia will not be the first to give up its own territory,” the Internal Affairs Minister said at a ceremony where wreaths were placed on the monument of the Mišarska Heroes.He compared the demand for the independence of Kosovo with the amputation of an appendage. “You cannot amputate the limb of a patient on his deathbed without consent; much less amputate 15 percent of a democratic nation’s territory in the 21st century.” Jočić said. What is interesting is that Jočić’s comments come only a day after his party colleague from the Democratic Party of Serbia, Kosovo Coordination Centre President Sanda Rašković-Ivić, said that Serbia would be willing to divide Kosovo.


Serbs suggest partition of Kosovo after UN leaves

By Neil MacDonald in Larnaca, Cyprus

Published: August 14 2006 03:00 Last updated: August 14 2006 03:00
The head of Serbia's delegation on the future status of Kosovo has suggested partition of the disputed territory if no way can be found for ethnic Albanians and Serbs to live together.
In an interview with the BBC aired late last week, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, the Serbian delegation leader, described partition as a possible "win-win situation" to replace the United Nations administration in place since the expulsion of Yugoslav Serb forces under Nato aerial bombardment seven years ago.
The partition idea, which defies the existing terms for UN-brokered talks taking place in Vienna, indicates the struggle on the Serbian side to win any political concession, other than guarantees of minority rights within an independent Kosovo.
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