Petkovic meets with France's Western Balkans envoy

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic met with French special Western Balkans envoy Rene Troccaz on Wednesday and pointed out the daily violence and terror of Pristina PM Albin Kurti's regime against Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

Petkovic noted that Belgrade was drawing these problems to the attention of the international community on a daily basis, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement.

Petkovic said Pristina had turned down an invitation to a November 7 round of technical dialogue between chief negotiators, while Belgrade had confirmed its participation in a timely manner.

That way, Pristina has clearly confirmed it is not interested in dialogue, normalisation of relations and de-escalation on the ground and that it wants to change the situation through militarisation, he said.

Petkovic noted Kurti was exclusively to blame for the current situation in the north of Kosovo-Metohija as he persevered in provocations, unilateral actions, groundless arrests and false accusations against Serbs as well as in a consistent refusal to establish a Community of Serb Municipalities and call and carry out elections in four municipalities in the north of Kosovo-Metohija.

"It is clear that the only goal of the ethnic Albanian side is to spark fresh tensions and escalate the situation on the ground, which leads to a direct denial of the very point of dialogue," Petkovic noted.

He said Kurti had no intention whatsoever of working on normalisation of co-existence of Serbs and ethnic Albanians and inter-ethnic trust because his ultimate plan was a Kosovo-Metohija without Serbs.

Petkovic concluded that, in spite of everything, Belgrade remained a constructive party committed to finding compromise for the sake of normalisation of relations and building lasting and sustainable peace.