Petkovic: Eulex must undertake its duty, why did it take no part in Banjska investigation?

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Monday the key question to Eulex was why it had taken no part in the investigation following the September 24 incident in Banjska.

"An expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Serbs by (Pristina's PM Albin) Kurti are at work. That is why it is important that Eulex undertake its duty and react in line with its mandate, and not say they cannot issue orders to the 'Kosovo Police' - it seems that the 'Kosovo Police' can issue orders to them," Petkovic told a press conference.

No one is asking Kfor and Eulex to side with the Serbs, but to be objective and neutral, he said.

He said the so-called Kosovo Police did not want Eulex to take part in the investigation in order to hide the fact that two Serbs had been murdered in cold blood.

"The 'Kosovo Police' does not want it to become known in what way they were murdered in cold blood and it does not want it to be established that there were mercenary killers from terrorist camps in the 'Kosovo Police' and that they wanted to kill the Serbs, because that was Kurti's order," Petkovic said.

Petkovic displayed a photo of the dead body of Bojan Mijailovic - one of the three Serbs killed in the Banjska clashes - and said that, even though Serbian experts had not been allowed to attend the autopsy, they believed the photo corroborated a statement by a protected witness who had said Mijailovic had, in fact, been executed.

Petkovic said the photo clearly showed Mijailovic had been killed while lying on his back on the ground in what had been a "face-to-face execution."

He said the position of the body indicated Mijailovic had first been wounded and then executed by Pristina's police after falling to the ground.

"That is why it is crucial that we find out everything about the autopsy report. We are not requesting that from Pristina because it is clear that they are falsifying facts and autopsy information, but we requested that from the Eulex chief on September 29," Petkovic said.

"We requested that our experts attend and that an international commission be set up to attend the autopsy. In the response Eulex sent to Belgrade, they say the autopsy was carried out on September 26, while the death certificates received by all three families upon taking over the bodies said the autopsy was conducted on September 25," Petkovic said.

He said Pristina and Kurti had told many lies about the case.

"You can see that they also lied about the number of Serbs who were in Banjska - they said there were 30, 40 and now they are saying there were 90. They also said the ethnic Albanian policeman was killed in a crossfire, while now they are saying what we have been saying since day one - that he was killed by explosives," Petkovic said.

He said it was clear to everyone the goal of such behaviour by Kurti's regime was to carry out an ethnic cleansing of Serbs in the north of Kosovo-Metohija.

According to the latest figures, also confirmed by foreign officials, around 11 pct of Serbs have left the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo-Metohija and moved to central Serbia, Petkovic said.