Petkovic speaks with head of OSCE mission to Kosovo-Metohija

BELGRADE - The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic spoke with the head of the OSCE mission to Kosovo-Metohija, Michael Davenport, on Friday about the current security situation in the province, with particular focus on latest developments and synchronised pressure on Serbs living both south and north of the Ibar River.

Petkovic said Pristina's unilateral and illegal moves were promoting sheer violence against the Serbs and threatened to abolish all of their human, civil and political rights, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement.

Petkovic recalled that Pristina's special police troops and customs authorities had taken away 42,000 l of wine from a Serb-owned winery in the Velika Hoca village on Thursday and that, at the same time, Pristina's special police had raided a kindergarten in Leposavic with armoured vehicles and combat weapons.

He said last night's deployment of 300 to 350 special police troops with armoured vehicles and long weapons to Kosovska Mitrovica was further evidence that Pristina wanted incidents and was trying to spark a new crisis in any possible way.

He also noted that Pristina's police armed with long weapons had recently raided the offices of municipalities in the north of Kosovo-Metohija while an EU-Western Balkans summit was underway in Tirana.

He said the rights of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs had also been trampled underfoot by the nomination of Nenad Rasic as Pristina's minister for communities and return.

He noted that Rasic's electoral list had won just 0.173 pct of votes in the most recent elections.

All of the above demonstrates that, through illegal and violent actions, Pristina is preparing an occupation of the north of Kosovo-Metohija and creating space to impose by force the holding of illegal elections, which Albin Kurti wants to implement in four municipalities in the north of Kosovo-Metohija, Petkovic said.

On the other hand, Belgrade neither wants to nor is making moves that can lead to tensions and new crises on the ground and we have met all our commitments arising from the Brussels Agreement while, for nearly ten years now, Pristina has been refusing to start the process of forming a Community of Serb Municipalities, Petkovic said.