Petkovic: Pristina rewarded for avoiding its commitments

BELGRADE - The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic met with ambassadors and representatives of the Quint member states and the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia on Friday to inform them in detail of Thursday's Brussels meeting of chief negotiators in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, noting that, for 11 years to the day, Pristina had been refusing to establish a Community of Serb Municipalities.

Instead of seeing the international community make Pristina meet its commitments from the dialogue, we are all witnessing a completely unjust and deviant approach where Pristina is, in fact, being rewarded for consciously avoiding its commitments and for making escalatory moves in Serb communities on a daily basis, Petkovic said.

He said expulsion of Serbs living both north and south of the Ibar River, institutional violence, a ban on the Serbian dinar and occupation of the north of Kosovo-Metohija were, in fact, the only "conditions" Pristina had met for the rewards of visa liberalisation, improved status in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and, most recently, the adoption of a report in favour of its unlawful membership in the Council of Europe, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement.

Petkovic informed the diplomats of Belgrade's constructive proposal for resolving a crisis triggered by Pristina's unilateral and violent decision to ban the Serbian dinar and dinar cash operations in Kosovo-Metohija, and noted that, on the other hand, Pristina had made no proposals of its own, rejecting all proposals by Belgrade.

"It is clear Pristina is unwilling to take the slightest step towards a way out of the difficult situation the Serbs are in and that what is behind this is an overt desire of the Kurti regime to expel all Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija," Petkovic said.

The Serbs are being pushed to the brink of humanitarian disaster as a result of Kurti's attempts to make them unable to receive salaries, pensions and social benefits paid by Serbian authorities, Petkovic said, adding that the operation of Serbian institutions in the province - above all, hospitals, kindergartens and schools - was also in jeopardy.

All problems faced by the Serbs today are due to the fact that, for a full 11 years, Pristina has been refusing to form a Community of Serb Municipalities, its commitment from the EU-guaranteed Brussels Agreement, and is instead making unilateral and escalatory moves on the ground, Petkovic said.