OSCE commends communication with multi-ethnic regions

BELGRADE - The head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Peter Burkhard commended during a meeting with Serbian Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government Kori Udovicki on Friday her ministry's efforts to establish routine communication with officials of local self-government authorities in multi-ethnic regions and national minority councils.

Burkhard discussed with Udovicki joint activities regarding exercise of national minority rights, the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government said in a statement.

The meeting followed in the wake of a successful March 3 visit by the Serbian deputy prime minister and minister of local self-government to southern Serbian municipalities, organised with mediation from the Coordination Body for the Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja municipalities and also attended by an OSCE official.

Speaking about the discussions in Bujanovac, Udovicki said that there seems to be a readiness in those multi-ethnic regions to continue the aborted discussions on seven topics defined in 2013, which involved local authorities, minority representatives and the Serbian government, the statement said.

"To solve all issues, the open issues in the judiciary, in education and health care must be solved constructively, and the number of residents in those municipalities is also a contentious issue, since the Albanian national minority staged a mass boycott of the 2011 census," Udovicki said.

She noted that she expects assistance from all interested parties, including international organisations, in a bid to find a solution that will be favourable to all and reflect the actual situation.

The two officials agreed that discussions on these and other issues will be continued in the...