In its response to the EU/US pressuring Serbia to accelerate, step-by-step, her recognition of unilateral and illegal secession of Kosovo and Metohija, the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals hereby recalls the following:
Priština’s unilateral secession is the outcome of NATO aggression carried out 24 years ago. The purpose of this armed aggression was to assert dominance in the Balkans, as a part of NATO’s strategy of expanding eastwards and setting the grounds for confrontation with Russia. The goal of the extended aggression, articulated as the ultimatum for Serbia to recognize Kosovo, remains the same – to formalize the wresting the Province out of Serbia by force, to pit Serbia against both Russia and China, and to get ready for the global face-off.

The armed part of the aggression ended with negotiations, and negotiations ended with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 that, inter alia, guarantees the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) whereas for the Province of Kosovo and Metohija is foreseen substantial autonomy within Serbia (the FRY).

UN SC Resolution 1244 is a document of the highest legal authority and force within the existing global legal order, one that binds each of 193 members of the United Nations, without exceptions and without any time constraints. This legal act is still in force and no other than the UN Security Council is entitled to cancel or alter it, nor violate it by imposing any kind of a different solution. Serbia’s vital interest is that this Resolution be duly observed and fully implemented.

From its opening recital to its closing Article 11, the “EU Proposal-Agreement on the path to normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia” published on the European Union website on February 27, 2023, is but a gross violation of UN SC Resolution 1244, the principles of international law, and the Constitution of Serbia. EU’s endeavors vis-à-vis Serbia, as an old European country and a member of the United Nations and other international organizations, employing threats and extortion to compel Serbia to concede to becoming an equal in terms of rights and obligations with her own Autonomous Province, now entrusted to an interim UN mandate, makes a one-of-a-kind episode in recent history that embodies arrogant and arbitrary behaving, violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity, abuse of a UN General Assembly mandate, and setting of a precedent with a hard-to-predict consequences for peace and security in the Balkans and in Europe.
Serbia is requested to reduce own constitutionally established and internationally recognized state territory with which she became member to the United Nations, OSCE, and all other international organizations, by ceding it to a criminally superimposed creation (Articles 2 and 4).

The ‘Proposal-Agreement’ is teeming with contradictory provisions and formal symmetries, each detrimental to Serbia’s vital interests. The authors made sure to leave room for ‘Parties’ to sell victory to their respective public, each in its own way. If the ‘Proposal-Agreement’ were accepted, it is beyond any doubt that disputes would be decided by the EU/US, just as is clear that their ruling, as always before, would be to Serbia’s detriment.

The official narrative is that ‘Proposal-Agreement’ was not signed, without stating whether it was verbally endorsed or not; differing information and interpretations swirling around only cause confusion among the public. In given backdrop, the consent of all participants to negotiate the implementation of this ‘Proposal-Agreement’— one that has not been signed or confirmed as endorsed, that has not been published in any institution or official medium in Serbia — is nothing short of amazing. Such an attitude is incompatible with the fateful significance of the matter at hand.

Serbia and the Serbian people are faced with EU/US attempt of a historic hoax. The solution is not in acceptance of this hoax while citing the preserving of peace and prospects for progress and a better life as an excuse. Any solution that is inherently unjust and imposed under threats and fraud and that serves the global confrontation, can be anything except a contributing factor to peace, development, and a better life. We must diverge from any plans or forecasts still based on theses invoking ‘end of history’ and any inducements to permanently renounce our enduring life interests for the sake of small shiny offers and benefits.

The EU has shown its true colors also back in 2013, by compelling Serbia to withdraw state institutions in the north of the Province, the police and judiciary including, for the promise of an established Community of Serbian Municipalities (the CSM). We all know what followed there, and in particular the outcome of NATO’s broken promise not to allow deployment of anyone’s long-barreled arms to the north: not only did we get long-barreled guns but also erected military camps, land grab, and full militarization in the north! Ten years on, the EU/US once again offer promises of the CSM, only this time as a package – “both implementation of the ‘EU Proposal-Agreement’ and a CSM compliant with the Constitution of the so-called Kosovo”. Suffice to say of respecting the document signed. And we may as well have a déjà vu – implementation of the ‘EU Proposal-Agreement’ only! But – we are soothed – there will be guarantees! Whose?! Of those same ones who have previously been granting but never honoring them?!

The promises of investments and donations should Serbia renounced her state rights to a part of her state territory, at the expense of her dignity and identity, is an example of aggressiveness exerted by the revived neo-colonial and neo-racist mentality and utter hypocrisy, which we have mistakenly believed had been long ago consigned to history.
The time we live in is of historical significance. It requires Serbia to be inspired and invigorated by her greatest feats in the most grueling historical turning points, to get back to self-respecting, and to generally endorsed principles, the Constitution and UN SC Resolution 1244 as the only reliable supports. To not put up with the deviously planted mentality of subservience, dependance and powerlessness. To respect to a greater degree her own human, scientific, cultural, spiritual, economic, geopolitical, and natural potentials. And to not negotiate the issues that restrict her sovereignty and territorial integrity in the same package with the foreign-granted benefits, and especially not for fear of losing someone’s mercy. Whatever the volume of such benefits, it will never come close to the amount of damage sustained by the criminal ‘Merciful Angel’.

In our relationship with the EU, as well, we should be guided by the principle that Serbia needs others as much as they need Serbia, instead of being guided by ‘realism’ into accepting of our own free will to succumb the inferiority complex. It is high time we took more into account and in a more responsible way, all that Serbia and the Serbian people have experienced and survived throughout history and who from, while keeping in mind that neocolonial appetites are insatiable.
In our relations with the EU and the West in general we must embed, once and forever, the feeling of what Serbia gave to Europe while sacrificing millions of human lives, whom no one has yet acknowledged and for whom no one has yet apologized. If they belittle us, if they blackmail us, this is because we belittle ourselves.

We must not rely on promises and guarantees offered by those who most often betrayed us.

BELGRADE FORUM FOR THE WORLD OF EQUALS
Belgrade, March 7, 2023