Belgrade was unaware of Radoicic's actions - lawyer

BELGRADE - Srpska lista deputy leader Milan Radoicic on Friday tendered his irrevocable resignation from his post, his lawyer Goran Petronijevic announced at a press conference, adding that Belgrade had been unaware of Radoicic's actions prior to last weekend's deadly clashes in Banjska, a village in the north of Kosovo-Metohija.

In a press statement read out by Petronijevic, Radoicic said he had gone to the Banjska area with a group of other Serbs on September 24 to encourage local Serbs to resist the terror by Albin Kurti's regime.

"Of that, I was informing no one from the structures of the authorities of the Republic of Serbia or local political structures in the north of Kosovo-Metohija, nor did I have any assistance from them because, by that time, we already had differing views on past methods of resisting Kurti's terror," Radoicic said in the statement.

He said he had personally carried out "all logistical preparations for defending our people from the occupiers" and noted that his actions had had nothing to do with his previous political engagement.

Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of Serbia and it is being taken away from us by force, and the Serbs are being persecuted, Radoicic said, noting that the goal of the persecution was a complete ethnic cleansing of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs.

"That is why we were forced to try to stop the persecution of the Serbs and protect the lives of our families and fellow citizens while drawing to the attention of both the Pristina regime and the international community that the Serbs would no longer tolerate such terror by Kurti," he added, noting that he was ready to respond to any call by the Serbian authorities in connection with the events in Banjska.

Responding to questions from reporters, Petronijevic said he did not know what had preceded the Banjska clashes but that there were suspicions that an officer of the so-called Kosovo Police who had lost his life in the incident had not been killed by a bullet, but an explosion that had not targeted him or anyone else.

He said self-organising and taking justice into one's own hands was not good but that, in this case, it had been a desperate move that had followed inactivity by Kfor and the international community in terms of taking measures to protect Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

"The EU, which is the guarantor of the Brussels Agreement, took no measures to make the Pristina authorities implement the provisions of the agreement," Petronijevic said.

The double standards that are at work in Kosovo-Metohija led to a situation where there was no way out, he said.

He said the Pristina authorities had not allowed Serbian or Eulex experts to attend the autopsies of three Serbs killed in the clashes, and noted that this was a clear indicator of a "serious cover-up."

Petronijevic said some findings indicated irregularities in the circumstances of the deaths of two Serbs.

He explained that one of them had been executed after surrendering and that the other had been shot again after being wounded to verify his death.