Petkovic speaks with German envoy

BELGRADE - The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic met with the German MFA's envoy Michael Reiffenstuel on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments concerning Kosovo-Metohija and the position of Serbs in the province.

At the meeting, also attended by German Ambassador to Belgrade Anke Konrad, Petkovic said Albin Kurti's regime was conducting physical and institutional violence against the Serbs, making life in Kosovo-Metohija unbearable for them, the Office said in a statement.

Petkovic said this was leading to an exodus of Serbs from the province.

He noted that Pristina's most recent moves - a ban on the Serbian dinar and cash transactions in dinars - had put payments of salaries, pensions and social benefits in jeopardy, leaving Serbian institutions, hospitals, schools and kindergartens without the basic means for operation.

"Altogether, that is leading to a humanitarian disaster for a nation in the heart of Europe, in front of the eyes of the international community, which is not trying to prevent that disaster through concrete actions," Petkovic said.

According to the statement, he also informed Reiffenstuel of the farce surrounding a recent referendum to recall false ethnic Albanian mayors in the north of Kosovo-Metohija, and noted that it clearly showed Kurti intended to exercise power in four Serb municipalities with 3.5 pct voter support.

"If we add to that that, for 11 years, Pristina has been refusing to form a Community of Serb Municipalities, there is no doubt that the Pristina regime wants to take no action towards deescalation on the ground but that, on the contrary, it is generating new problems and new crises on a daily basis through unilateral moves, destabilising the situation in the entire region," Petkovic said.

He also noted that, at an upcoming meeting in Brussels, Belgrade would remain consistent in advocating preservation of peace and reaching of compromise within the dialogue, as well as in expectations that the international community assume the key role in protecting the most fundamental human rights of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, which he said were flagrantly jeopardised on a daily basis.