Albanian, Serbian PMs split over disputed Kosovo mine

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – The leaders of Serbia and Albania spoke out about a disputed Kosovo mining operation during a security meeting in Belgrade on Thursday.

Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama and Serbian premier Aleksandar Vucic took part in a panel discussion at the Belgrade Security Forum on stability in southeastern Europe.

Rama said the Trepca mining and metallurgy complex -- located in a majority-Serb part of Kosovo -- belonged to all citizens. The Kosovan parliament voted last week to nationalize the facility to save it from bankruptcy.

"Kosovo needs to understand that Trepca is the soul of Kosovo and it belongs to all who live in Kosovo -- Albanians and Serbs," said Rama.

However, Vucic replied: "Find a Serb who agrees with what they did."

Belgrade, which refused to recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence, insists majority ownership of the mine -- which employs 5,000 people -- belongs to the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia.

Trepca has two mines in northern Mitrovica, an area with a large Serb population in the majority ethnic-Albanian country. Although two shafts are managed by Serbs, a third in southern Mitrovica is managed by Albanians.

The Trepca company was the major mining operation in the former Yugoslavia, extracting 70 percent of the country's mineral output.

-Migrant crisis-

Rama also said that although his country is not part of the so-called Balkan route for refugees and migrants, it is ready to share the burden with countries in the region.

He praised Serbia's attitude towards migrants and said Belgrade had behaved better towards them than some EU member states.

Vucic said Serbia would do its best to continue showing solidarity with migrants, although there were fewer refugees arriving from Syria.

The three-day Belgrade Security Forum started on Wednesday and will run until Friday.

During the forum more than 100 speakers and 700 participants will discuss 25 topics including a new European security strategy, the EU enlargement process, relations between Serbia and NATO plus the migrant crisis.