Security situation in Kosovo-Metohija highly tense, unstable - committee

BELGRADE- The Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija said on Monday the current security situation in the autonomous province of Kosovo-Metohija was highly tense and unstable, especially in terms of the position of Serbs and other non-Albanians.

Such a state of affairs is a consequence of continued escalatory moves by Pristina and Albin Kurti, as they, in a calculated manner, use institutional, physical and psychological violence on a daily basis, destabllising the situation and creating impossible living conditions for Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, the committee said at a closed-door session.

At the same time, it called on the international community, especially states that undoubtedly have influence on the Pristina provisional institutions, to stop, urgently and vigorously, Pristina's systematic, comprehensive and widespread violence against the Serbs.

It also called on the Pristina institutions to implement the provisions of agreements signed in the dialogue and establish a Community of Serb Municipalities without delay.

The committee provides full support to the Serb population and Serb political representatives - Srpska lista in Kosovo-Metohija - to fight, in a peaceful and democratic way, for their human rights and safe living and survival, it said.

It also concluded it supported a continuation of a constructive approach by Belgrade, which is meeting all of its commitments from the dialogue and is fully committed to the path of normalising the relations.

At the same time, the committee welcomes and fully supports the package of legal and social and economic measures adopted by the Serbian government at the initiative of the president of the Republic with a view to protecting the rights of Serbs and vital state and national interests in the territory of the province, it said.

According to an official statement, the committee also said it fully supported Belgrade's negotiating team in the dialogue with Pristina and condemned the unilateral moves by the Pristina authorities, which it noted were an evident blow to the dialogue for which Pristina had so far suffered no consequences at the hands of the international community.

The committee's conclusions have been submitted, among other institutions, to the Serbian interior ministry, the defence ministry, the Security and Informaton Agency, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija and the Office for the Coordination of Affairs in the Process of Negotiation with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Pristina.