Dacic: EU Head in Kosovo Asked EU Member States’ Help over Obstruction of Work of Special Court in Kosovo

Ivica Dacic (BETAPHOTO/Foreign Ministry/Ognjen Stevanovic)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Oct. 1 that Head of EU Office in Kosovo Nataliya Apostolova had informed the EU member states about “the great problems” the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the so-called ‘Special Court’, was facing in Kosovo.

Dacic told the Pink TV that Apostolova asked for help from the EU so that the work of the court would not be obstructed. He also recalled Pristina’s previous demands to abolish the Hague-based court and have it convene solely in Kosovo.

“[Pristina] then proposed some amendments to put the court outside the constitution, which means outside the law – i.e. to abolish the court. They demanded in Washington [during the talks between Belgrade and Pristina representatives] that that [issue] be one of the items on the agenda,” Dacic said. The sequence of events, he added, points to a possible arrest of Kosovo President Hashim Thaci on the court’s orders.

Talking about the new Montenegrin government, Dacic called its formation very complicated and unlikely “to be to everyone’s taste” given that three coalitions are involved in the process.

“The opposition needs to survive its coming to power. It is hard for the [outgoing] authorities to survive their fall from power, but the same goes for the opposition – to take over and make a transition from words to acts,” Dacic said.