Community of municipalities "future of Serbs"

Community of municipalities "future of Serbs"

BELGRADE -- A community of Serb municipalities in Kosovo is entering a phase where its "fundamental establishment should finally begin," says Marko Đurić.

The director of the Serbian government office for Kosovo and Metohija pointed out that the formation of this future community, known in Serbian by its acronym "ZSO", is closely associated with the formation of the Kosovo government.

"We cannot form the ZSO until there is a statute, and agreement on the functioning of other institutions. The ZSO is the future of the Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija, the focal part of the Brussels treaty is precisely the ZSO," he said.

According to him, words, the community is in the process of being set up now via a management team, and will be built in the full capacity "in the coming weeks and months."

Commenting on the talks with Priština in Brussels earlier this week about the contentious "Peace Park" on the main bridge over the Ibar River in Kosovska Mitrovica, Đurić stressed that the sides agreed the park would remain in place. Priština's negotiator, Edita Tahiri, said after the meeting that they agreed to gradually dismantle it. Speaking for Serbia's public broadcaster RTS, Đurić reiterated his position:

"It was agreed to make a visual assessment of the condition of the bridge by the middle of September, and then the talks will resume with the aim of not changing anything until both parties agree what the bridge and the area around it will look like in the future."

Local Serbs in the ethnically divided town recently removed a barricade from the bridge, but promptly brought in soil and concrete flower boxes. Asked "what the purpose of a park is...