Vucevic: If international law was respected, gov't would have met in Gracanica

KRUSEVAC - Serbian PM Milos Vucevic said on Friday that, due to a lack of respect of international law, his cabinet had gathered in Krusevac - a city in the south of central Serbia - earlier in the day instead of in Gracanica or at Gazimestan in Kosovo-Metohija.

"At today's special government session, we touched upon or discussed four topics that are crucial for our work today - the issue of internal and external security, which is within the competence of the interior and defence ministries," Vucevic said, adding that the interior and defence ministers had delivered brief reports.

He added that culture and everything the Ministry of Culture was doing to "preserve all national and identity-related matters and affairs that characterise and define our people" had been a topic as well and that the economy, which he said was the engine of the country's development, had been discussed, too.

"Because without a strong economy, orderly finances and a stable monetary policy, neither the Serbian Armed Forces nor the Ministry of Defence would have all that we saw today," Vucevic said, referring to a display of a part of the Serbian Armed Forces arsenal that was held in Krusevac earlier in the day.

"Since there is no respect of international law and justice - because we would have held the special government session in Gracanica and gone to Gazimestan today if there was - the imperial city of Krusevac and the Rasina administrative district are a natural and normal address for the Government of Serbia," he said.

On Friday, Serbia celebrated the national holiday of St Vitus's Day and commemorated the 635th anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo.

The main ceremony was held in Krusevac.

Gazimestan, near Pristina, Kosovo-Metohija, is the site of the battle.