Petkovic meets with Hungarian ambassador

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic met with Hungarian Ambassador to Belgrade Jozsef Zoltan Magyar on Friday to inform him of the difficult political and security situation in Kosovo-Metohija, especially in the north of the province, which he said was threatening to jeopardise peace and stability across the region.

According to a statement released by the Office, Petkovic expressed concern over groundless and illegal arrests of Serbs, violence and daily pressure on the Serb population by the Pristina regime, and said over 350 attacks on Serbs and their property, churches and cemeteries had been registered since Albin Kurti had taken office as Pristina's PM.

"The fact that the Pristina authorities have been refusing since 2016 to implement their own court decisions and return 24 hectares of land to the Visoki Decani monastery, which is on the Unesco world heritage list, shows clearly that lawlessness is at work in Kosovo-Metohija and that violence on religious and ethnic grounds is being carried out at all levels," Petkovic warned.

He added that Kurti's policy, reflected in constant institutional, political and physical violence against Serbs in the province, had culminated in the appointment of illegal and illegitimate mayors and deployment of special police forces in Serb municipalities in the north of the province.

Even though it is now clear to everyone the Pristina authorities are the only party insisting on a crisis and conflicts to avoid the obligation of forming a Community of Serb Municipalities and put further dialogue into doubt, Belgrade, as a responsible party, will do everything to preserve peace in the province, much needed by Serbs on both sides of the Ibar River, Petkovic said.