Politicians in Kosovo should be united in building a stronger position at the negotiating table with Belgrade, says the only Albanian deputy in the Serbian Parliament, Shaip Kamberi.
In the dialogue process that is mediated by the European Union, Kamberi says that the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is trying to buy time since, according to him, he knows that the solution to the process will ultimately be “unfavorable” for him. However, according to Kamber, the leadership there already knows that “the Serbian boot will no longer step on Kosovo”.
Kamberi, in an interview for KosovaPress, says that the president of Serbia is trying to minimize the guilt for the genocide committed in Kosovo.
“Aleksandar Vučić is trying to reduce the guilt of Serbia that it had in the war and somehow in the existing processes to be equal with other countries. As for Kosovo, I think that privately they know that Kosovo will never be Serbia again, the Serbian boot will never step on Kosovo again… But they are trying to gain something there through this geopolitical game. And to get out of this situation with a benefit, as they often say ‘one can’t win everything, the other lose everything’. But, on the other hand, he cannot come up with a concrete position due to the fact that if he comes up with a concrete request, as it is often thought that he has a request in the north, then it falls on Vučić to accept the independence of the rest of Kosovo and this sit down, at the negotiation table, the bazaar”, said Kamberi.
Kamberi says that Vucic, through terrorist attacks, has tried to divide the north of Kosovo.
The northern part faced tensions, especially in recent years. In September 2023, Serbian terrorists attacked the Kosovo Police and killed Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku in Banjska i Zveçani.
A year later, on November 29, 2024, the river channel of Ibër Lepenci in Varaga of Zubin Potok was damaged after a large explosion.
Kosovo authorities said the attack on Kosovo’s critical infrastructure was terrorist and orchestrated by criminal gangs backed by official Belgrade.
“Aleksandar Vučić is trying to manipulate in order to gain time in order not to find a solution for Kosovo. Because it is clear that the solution that will come to the table is unfavorable for him and for the Serbian regime. He has promised everything, he has promised the return and the triumphal march of the Serbian army in Kosovo. Through Banjska, he tried to divide, to play out the scenario of Cyprus, and to divide the north of Kosovo. There has been another terrorist attack on the vital infrastructure of Kosovo. And Aleksandar Vučić is already clear that with such methods in Kosovo, there is no end, he cannot”, says Kamberi.
While talking about the Brussels dialogue, a process in which Kosovo has entered since 2011, Kamberi emphasizes the need for internal unity.
“Unfortunately, the issue of the unity of Albanians is not new, it is not only with these cases (terrorist attacks in Kosovo). In general, when there is a political scene that is so expanded and so fragmented, with many political subjects with certain interests for local or even state levels, they somehow influence the building of unity against an enemy, which is the state of Serbia. Therefore, all those comments and evaluations that Kosovo Serbs are in the same situation as the Albanians were in the 90s do not stand and are harmful for Kosovo… Unity is necessary against Serbia and this unity must be seen in actions supporting the government in those main demands it has regarding Serbia because it is very clear that Serbia must apologize for the crimes committed in Kosovo. Because it is the only way which proves that Serbia will not repeat those crimes”, he declares.
Albanians living in the south of Serbia – the area known as the Preševo Valley – continue to face discrimination.
In Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanoc, Serbia is continuing with “ethnic cleansing” through the passivation of addresses.
“We cannot agree, as Albanians in the Presheva Valley, that the entire international community only talks about the rights of one community, in this case the Serbian community, which even with the Constitution of Kosovo and the plan of Ahtisaari has more rights more than any other minority in Europe. Build another package, another instrument that will make them a privileged minority, while we here (Presheva Valley) are denied our basic rights. Peace and stability, long-term sustainable peace in the Balkans is built by treating minorities equally”, Kamberi declares.
Kamberi also talks about the stops of Albanians at the border points with Serbia and the refusal that is being made to the requests for visits that the ministers of Kosovo are intending to make in the Valley.
“It is an Albanophobic policy that is being pursued there, but not only politics. The media are the ones who create the general atmosphere by treating the Albanians as the general enemy of Serbia and then against the enemy all means are allowed… The tenth corridor is not only a corridor of Serbia, it is a corridor that connects Central Europe with Greece with the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, such actions taken by the police of Serbia are also anti-human”, he says to KosovaPress.
In October last year, the Government of Serbia approved a draft law on “Serbian judicial jurisdiction in Kosovo”, as well as another one on the declaration of Kosovo as a “special social protection area”.
Kamberi says that, practically, such a draft law is invalid in Kosovo.
