Head of the Gracanica hospital Rada Trajkovic said on Wednesday that the referendum held in northern Kosovo had only helped divide the Serbs, while head of the Kosovska Mitrovica municipality Krstimir Pantic stated it had sent a strong political message.

Speaking in a debate on who is dividing the Serbs in Kosovo and Serbia over the Kosovo issue, which was organized by Tanjug, Trajkovic said she feared the referendum could be used to destabilize Kosovo again.

No international institution supported or observed the referendum, and they find it invalid, Trajkovic noted.
According to her, the bad thing about the referendum is that the Kosovo parliament adopted a resolution that criticizes Serbia severely.

They did it with the support of Serb representatives in the Kosovo government and parliament, she remarked, explaining that she meant the Independent Liberal Party.

"I am afraid the referendum could be the reason for a new destabilization," she pointed out.
However, Trajkovic does not think the referendum will affect Serbia's chances of getting the EU candidate status.

Serbs south of the Ibar river have been forgotten, and all the comments within the Serbian parliament committee on Kosovo refer to northern Kosovo, as if the Serbs to the south did not exist, she stated.

Neither the international community nor the Serbian government will be able to ignore the strong political message contained in the referendum result, said Pantic.

He pointed to the statement of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Serbian colleague Vuk Jeremic that the referendum had simply confirmed the facts, which could not be ignored by anyone in the future.

"It means that the part of the international community that supports Pristina will have to change and they will have to realize that the Kosovo Serbs cannot be made to accept solutions by force or any other methods," Pantic believes.

He said he was pleased the referendum was not a requirement for the candidate status, but that the only requirement was Kosovo's regional representation.