We must have a multi-ethnic community in Kosovo and we need help to achieve this

Vojislav Kostunica

It is not possible to overestimate its importance because this issue might endanger the entire region.

As a democrat and as a man who has always supported the rule of law, I would like to turn to the international community and, above all, the OSCE and ask them to help us so that this will not happen.

Kosovo 'must be multi-ethnic'

We must have a multi-ethnic community in Kosovo and we need help to achieve this. Yugoslavia, my country, must remain the most multi-ethnic country in the Balkans...

We must introduce the necessary mechanisms and standards to ensure that the rights of these ethnic minorities are safeguarded.

Solutions imposed from the outside can only be superficial solutions

Vojislav Kostunica

For this purpose, we need a general agreement on minority rights. It is not so much the substance but the way in which it can be enforced that must be the main issue nowadays.

It is a great challenge for the democratic forces in our country, but also all over Europe, because nobody can know already now which is the most appropriate way of action for a specific country.

Dialogue needed

Ethnic conflicts must be settled through a dialogue between the affected groups; solutions that are imposed from the outside can only be superficial solutions.

Therefore, I am for an open dialogue between Serbs and Albanians. There the OSCE can help but it should not act as an arbiter.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.