BELGRADE, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The first round of the Serbia's "internal dialogue" over Kosovo started on Tuesday in Belgrade with a meeting of the country's top legal experts and representatives of the government.
The discussion held at the Palace of Serbia was attended by Justice Minister Nela Kuburovic, director of government's office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric as well as Nikola Selakovic, secretary general in the cabinet of the Serbian president.
In the pause of the event, Selakovic told journalists that the aim of the internal dialogue initiated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is to hear the opinion of Serbia's numerous experts about the political problem that Serbia has, and that it is never too late to turn things around, public broadcaster RTS reports.
Djuric said that the participants have serious and competent arguments and that government wants to hear the whole public before making any decisions.
"Before giving our opinion, we want to hear the whole public, academic community, institutes, Serbian academy of Science and Arts and all other parts of the society," Djuric said, adding that the dialogue will strengthen government's capacity to resolve the issue.
RTS reports that "the legal experts within the academic community have expressed different opinions which spanned "from the idea about a real union of Serbia and Kosovo, which share institutions although not being in a political union - to messages that Serbia should not make any more concessions".
RTS cited the dean of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade Simo Avramovic who said that Kosovo is not lost as long as some 120,000 Serbian citizens live there and that "the population in Kosovo is the biggest value and treasure that represents a capital that Serbia should nurture and make use of".
Dean of the Faculty of Law in Pristina Vlada Mihajlovic said that Serbia must not give up Kosovo because, as he said: "it is true that our police and army are not there, but our people live there, and we have a well-functioning network of institutions, education, health, social and other services".
RTS highlights the idea of the professor Vladan Kutlesic who sees a union of Serbia and Kosovo as the most realistic solution because "this model represents an international legal connection between two countries in a form of a real union" along with a full political autonomy for the North Kosovo.
However, the dean of the Faculty of Law of the private Megatrend University Zivko Kulic said that Serbia has already made enough concessions to Kosovo, and that making more of them will be a sign of weakness.
He stressed that the suggestions to divide Kosovo and exchange territories are wrong and unacceptable, because the whole of Kosovo belongs to Serbia and that is written in the Serbian constitution.
After the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, Serbia's autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija was put under interim administration of the United Nations (UN), who authorized NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) for that purpose, while the status of Kosovo became part of international negotiations.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province.
