Petkovic informs French diplomat of difficult position of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs

BELGRADE - The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic met on Tuesday with the head of the Department for Continental Europe of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Brice Roquefeuil to inform him of threats to Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, especially following Pristina's decision to ban the Serbian dinar.

Petkovic noted the necessity of institutional protection for the Serbs through the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities, which Pristina has been doggedly refusing to do for 11 years, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement.

Unlike Belgrade, which has met all commitments resulting from the Brussels Agreement, Pristina is constantly trying to take the establishment of the community - its biggest and most important commitment - off the agenda forever, Petkovic said.

He said Pristina's decision to ban the dinar and payment transactions in the currency was aimed at a final expulsion of Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija, abolition of Serbian institutions in the province and putting an end to the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

For the 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo-Metohija, payment transactions with central Serbia and transfers of incomes are a matter of their physical survival as pensions and social and all other benefits provided by Serbia are being paid via a Serbian bank, Petkovic said.

He said Pristina's intent to also shut down Serbia's Postal Savings Bank, which has been operating in the north of Kosovo-Metohija since 2018, was especially worrying.

Petkovic noted that Belgrade would continue to insist on finding a permanent and sustainable solution to that and all other problems to enable the Kosovo-Metohija Serbs to survive.

"The recent acquittal of a member of the so-called Kosovo Security Force who last year fired shots at Serb children on Christmas Eve proves that there is no rule of law for Serbs in the province," Petkovic said, adding that Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija had been targeted by 484 ethnically motivated attacks since the advent of Pristina PM Albin Kurti.

Blinded by hatred of everything that is Serbian, Pristina does not even respect the decisions of its own court and refuses to return land it has seized from the Visoki Decani Serbian Orthodox monastery, he said.