Petkovic: Kurti's ideology of evil must stop for region to have chance

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Friday Pristina PM Albin Kurti's "ideology of evil" must stop for the region, the shared home of Serbs and Albanians, to have a chance to develop.

In a statement released ahead of Orthodox Christmas, and a day before the anniversary of the brutal and criminal attack on Serb children in Gotovusa, Kosovo-Metohija, Petkovic noted that the concept of normalisation of relations and trust-building between peoples was unclear to Kurti and that he did not understand that ordinary people in Kosovo-Metohija, be they Serbs or ethnic Albanians, did not want to be held hostage by his ideology of hatred, but to live a safe and normal life.

Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija will never agree to responding to hatred with hatred, but fight for their rights, freedom and dignity in a determined and democratic manner, a statement released by the Office for Kosovo-Metohija quoted Petkovic as saying.

"When it comes to allowing freedom of movement, without any calculations that are an illusion of paranoid minds, Belgrade has met earlier commitments undertaken by the previous government in 2011 and, at the same time, got out of Kurti's hands one of the tools for subjecting Serbs living north and south of the Ibar River to pressure and violence, sending another message of true commitment to peace and normalisation," Petkovic said.