Petkovic: Pristina's police raid on Postal Savings Bank offices aimed at causing chaos

BELGRADE  - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said a "Kosovo Police" raid on branch offices of Serbia's Postal Savings Bank in the north of Kosovo-Metohija on Monday was an escalatory move by Pristina aimed at causing chaos and unrest and abolishing Serbian institutions in Kosovo-Metohija and that Belgrade would inform all international representatives of this.

"I will speak with Mr (Miroslav) Lajcak immediately, I will also call Quint representatives, and we will inform everyone in the international arena of the lawlessness and the terror ordered by Albin Kurti, the PM of the provisional Pristina institutions," Petkovic said in a statement.

He said the raid was not an ordinary escalatory move but a violent attack on dialogue itself as the dinar issue and a resolution of the fate of the Postal Savings Bank had become an integral part of the dialogue.

"Albin Kurti waited for the dialogue to finish and, after the failed bid for the so-called Kosovo's Council of Europe membership, he resorted to a new unilateral move aimed at causing unrest and chaos. Evidently, that man - Albin Kurti, the pyromaniac of the Balkans - wants war and wants Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija to suffer," Petkovic said.

He noted that Kurti had been taking all action in recent months to expel the Serbs from the north of Kosovo-Metohija.

"According to our current information from the ground, the 'Kosovo Police' has raided all premises, and employees who happened to be inside at the time of the raid are still being held there unlawfully and forcibly. It is clear this is not about abolishing the dinar, but about expelling the Serbs and abolishing all Serbian institutions in the north of Kosovo-Metohija," Petkovic said.

He said the raid was unfounded also because there had been no dinar cash at the branch offices at the time.