Petkovic: Pristina's police have shown they lied about shooting incident

BELGRADE - In a reaction to a statement in which Pristina's police eventually admitted to involvement in last night's shooting and wounding of a Kosovo Serb, the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said Pristina's police had thus shown they had lied about the case.

Will Pristina and it so-called interior minister apologise to Milan Jovanovic and will his wounding be condemned by any representative of the international community, Petkovic asked in a Facebook post.

After initially denying their involvement in the incident, Pristina's police said four officers had been suspended over the case.

"The Kosovo police have just admitted to shooting Serb Milan Jovanovic, showing that they had been lying all day about the Serb who was shot - a family man and a father of three who survived only by sheer luck," Petkovic added.

"When we called out the so-called minister to show evidence and footage from the illegal checkpoint at the Bistrica Bridge, he was forced to admit that claims that the Kosovo police did not fire at a Serb from Zvecan were a lie."

"Now everyone can see that the ROSU is directly responsible for this wounding. In addition, however much Pristina may be trying to criminalise Milan Jovanovic through its tried and tested recipe, they did not manage to pin anything on him and it is clear they fired at him just because he is a Serb!" Petkovic noted.

"It is now clear to everyone the illegal Kosovo police checkpoint must be removed urgently because its sole purpose is to be used for manhandling and torturing Serbs," he added, noting that Belgrade and Srpska lista had repeatedly warned of this.

After this incident, no one can say Albin Kurti's Kosovo police are in the north of Kosovo-Metohija to ensure peace and security, but on the contrary - to terrorise and intimidate Serbs, Petkovic noted.