Petkovic: Banjska resort raid part of plan to ethnically cleanse Serbs

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Tuesday Pristina's raid of the Rajska banja resort at Banjska near Zvecan earlier in the day was a part of a plan aimed at ethnically cleansing Serbs from the province.

"That way, too, Pristina confirmed its intent to comprehensively occupy the north of Kosovo-Metohija and sent a message that Serbia has no right to help its people in any way, the Rajska banja tourism and recreational complex being one of Belgrade's strategic investments in the north of Kosovo-Metohija," Petkovic said in a written statement.

Besides attacking the collective rights of Serbs, this display of force also violates the right to inviolability of property, which is sacrosanct in today's world, "because the extremists from Pristina are violating and taking away the property of municipalities, the Serbian Orthodox Church and individuals in the north of the province on a daily basis now, without holding back in any way and without any need to provide justification for that," Petkovic noted.

"The political extremists in Pristina take pleasure in abusing Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, and they especially like to do that on our great national and religious holidays. So, today, on St Nicholas's Day, Kurti's police raided the Rajska banja complex in the Zvecan municipality, and drove out maintenance staff of the hotel and the restaurant of the same name completely unlawfully and under threat of force. That way, Pristina once again sent a message to Serbs that they have no right to development of their local communities and no right to jobs and social security," Petkovic said.

Petkovic noted that the "brazenness and arrogance of Kurti and his thugs evidently know no boundaries."

"Of course, we will inform of all this the international community, including the facilitators of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue," Petkovic said.

The so-called Kosovo Police said the raid had been due to the fact the complex had no adequate operating permit.

Funded by the Office for Kosovo-Metohija, the Rajska banja complex was opened in 2019.