Kosovo’s decision not to recognize Bosnia and its documents only hurts the Bosniaks, as Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats have dual citizenship and can travel freely with documents of neighbouring Serbia and Croatia, Kosovo opposition leader Albin Kurt told N1.

Kosovo applied the principal of reciprocity to its relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina because the country has never recognized Kosovo’s independence and, therefore, its documents.

This is because Bosnian Serbs from the Republika Srpska sub-state in Bosnia have vowed to follow the policy of neighboring Serbia. They said that as long as Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo, they will be preventing Sarajevo from recognizing it.

According to Bosnia’s Constitution, there is nothing the country’s Bosniaks and Croats can do about that.  

“We are sorry that Bosnia does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, but this is not the fault of Sarajevo, but of the Republika Srpska entity, which is abusing its veto power,” Kurti, who heads the “Samoopredjelje (Self-determination) movement,” told reporters.  

Since it declared independence from Serbia, Kosovo has been recognized by 115 countries but not by Serbia and Bosnia. Belgrade is negotiating with Pristina for years about how the two could arrange their relations, and meanwhile they came to an agreement to accept each others documents. But the problem is hindering the path of both countries toward EU membership.  

Meanwhile, Kosovars can not travel to Bosnia and Bosnians so far could travel to Kosovo only with a visa – for which they would have to travel to another country to get, as there is no Kosovo embassy in Bosnia.  

Kosovo now has the same rules for Bosnians as Bosnia had all along for Kosovars.  

Kurti, who is attending the Sarajevo Business Forum thanks to the fact that he has an Albanian passport, said this whole arrangement is “absurd” as it punishes only the ones in Bosnia who have been advocating Kosovo's independence all along.  

The Sarajevo Business Forum, he said, is an extraordinary opportunity to meet with Bosnian politicians and activists and develop stronger cooperation, as „there are fields in which we can cooperate – politics, economy, culture, tourism and other.”  

According to Kurti, freedom of movement should not be breached with such a formal reciprocity policy between the two countries, especially since Kosovo does not have such an arrangement with Serbia, but should introduce it.