‘Republika Srpska’ Inside Kosovo

After a lot of wars and sufferings that people in Kosovo had along centuries for the independence, and after declaring it in 2008, it seems like Kosovo is going in a "Inside Republic" inside its territory.


After a long debates with the Serbian state that EU placed and after some agreements with it, Kosovo still does not have a comfort situation.




The Association of Serbian Municipalities, due to be established in Kosovo, could resemble a local version of the separatist ‘Republika Srpska’ in Bosnia, a Pristina-based NGO has warned.


As Pristina and Belgrade mull options about how the future Association of Serbian Municipalities will operate on the ground, an NGO in Kosovo, the Group for Legal and Political Studies, says the association “might soon play a role similar to that of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.The warning was a reference to the 1995 Dayton accords, which turned Bosnia into a loose federation, composed of a weak state and two highly autonomous entities – the Bosniak and Croat-dominated Federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.Bosnia has since struggled to become a coherent and functional state, with the Republika Srpska openly clamouring for outright independence.“This would make Kosovo incapable of functioning as a fully independent state,” the group said in an analysis called: “Analysis of Serbian Municipalities: From a tool of integration to a disaster in the making”.
Agron Bajrami, author of the analysis and chief editor of the newspaper “Koha Ditore”, said the association might “be transformed into a third level of power which would act, if not de jure then de facto, outside the legal framework of Kosovo.“This might de-functionalize and de-stabilize the legal system of the country,” he added.The establishment of an Association of Serb Municipalities forms a key part of the EU-brokered deal on normalizing relations between Pristina and Belgrade agreed in Brussels in April.
It remains unclear what responsibilities the association will have, as both sides have contradictory views on this matter.While Serbia wants the association to be formed on the basis of Serbian laws, Kosovo's Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, has said the association should be more like a kind of NGO.
Behlul Beqaj, a political analyst, said Kosovo should not underestimate its likely importance.
“The Association of Serbian Municipalities will be a Serbian political entity physically placed inside Kosovo's territory,” he said.“There will be temptations to change its status, maybe by calling a referendum, maybe by asking for the federalization of Kosovo, or maybe by seeking its partition,” he added.
The association is to be formed following local elections held in November and December in Kosovo, the four Serb-dominated areas of the north of Kosovo included.Candidates from the Belgrade-backed “Srpska” list won in all four northern municipalities of Leposavic, Mitrovica North, Zubin Potok and Zvecan, while the party also won in five other municipalities in central Kosovo.These five municipalities had been governed by Pristina-backed Serbian parties since 2009,  when the last local elections were held. “The mission of 'Thaci’s Serbs' is over, while [Serbian Prime Minister Ivica] 'Dacic’s Serbs' just launched their mission,” Beqaj stressed, referring to the defeat of the more moderate Serbian parties in the centre and south of the country.