Petkovic: Rajska banja usurpation a robbery of Serbian Orthodox Church property

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Thursday Pristina's usurpation of the Rajska banja spa complex near Zvecan was a sheer robbery of private property owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

At the unveiling of a project to provide free legal assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees and returnees, Petkovic said Rajska banja was one of the most significant investments by the Serbian government and the Office for Kosovo-Metohija, aimed at empowering the local community, employing young people and offering treatment to thousands of patients and jobs to dozens of people.

"And then someone comes and says: 'That is not yours, but ours.' How can it be yours when you did not build it and you have never been there, when you do not have a single document?" Petkovic said in response to claims by Pristina.

He said Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija were facing huge problems that went as far as "complete disenfranchisement."

"The institutional violence carried out by Albin Kurti and the interim self-government institutions in Pristina is directly reflected in the life of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija almost on a daily basis, and this has especially been the case in the north of Kosovo-Metohija over the past year, leading to the departure of over 12 per cent of Serbs from Serbia's southern province to central Serbia," he said.

The Serbs are being targeted by persecution, groundless arrests, seizures of private property, unlawful expropriations, construction of illegal police bases, as well as by the most direct threats to their security by the so-called Kosovo Police, he said.

In consequence, life is extremely difficult for Kosovo-Metohija Serbs and normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations is in doubt, Petkovic said.

"For its part, Belgrade is doing absolutely everything to preserve peace and stability in Kosovo-Metohija and to ensure a position of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija that would enable our people to survive and stay in their ancestral homes," he said.

He noted that Belgrade was meeting all its commitments from the dialogue with Pristina, while, for over ten years now, Pristina was "most directly refusing" to meet its main commitment, the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities.

He also said the percentage of Serb returnees in Kosovo-Metohija was below 2 pct, meaning that Rwanda had a higher percentage of returns compared to Kosovo-Metohija.