Petkovic: Kurti's extremist policy stoking attacks against Serbs

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Monday Pristina's PM Albin Kurti had brought the situation in the province to the brink of conflict and wanted to set the region on fire.

With his extremist policy, Kurti is stoking extremist attacks against Serbs, Petkovic told Pink TV.

Serbs in the north of Kosovo-Metohija as well as in the south of the province are suffering as a result, he said.

"All his actions in the past several months and everything he has been doing has been aimed at provoking a reaction by the Serbs and at forcing our people to defend themselves. He wanted to drag the Serbs and Belgrade into a conflict to avoid the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities," Petkovic said.

Everyone has condemned Kurti's actions and the US has been the most vocal about it - even French President Emmanuel Macron has said Kurti is responsible for all developments in the north, Petkovic added.

"Everything Kurti has done - the deployment of ROSU special forces, their illegal presence at the Bistrica Bridge, the harassment of citizens, the ban on the referendum and elections and the disgraceful April 23 election process - is a scandal," Petkovic said, noting that Kurti had appointed ethnic Albanian mayors who had each won just 500 votes in Serb-majority municipalities.

"To top it all, the international community has backed the elections, instead of containing him," he said.

He reiterated that Serbs in the north of the province had been protesting peacefully for 17 days now and that 14 days had passed since the arrest of Rados Petrovic and Dusan Obrenovic, who were detained while sitting peacefully on the ground.

Speaking about clashes that took place in Zvecan two weeks ago, Petkovic said the protesters had merely responded to a violent action by Kfor.

"Our people defended themselves with their fists and with stones, they did not start the conflict," he noted.