On Tuesday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, after a conversation with the EU’s special envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Priština, Miroslav Lajčak, requested that the international community take concrete steps and not just condemn violence in order to stop the persecution of Serbs from Kosovo.
In a short address to the press after the meeting with Lajčak and the US ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill, Vučić said that in the next 72 hours he will address the public and present Serbia’s demands after four young men were arrested in the north of Kosovo who insulted the Kosovo policemen while intoxicated and were kept in custody.
Last night, the Kosovo police arrested four young men of Serbian nationality in Mitrovica in the north of Kosovo after they insulted the policemen under the influence of alcohol and detained them. The Kosovo police claim that the videos clearly show that the police did not beat the young men, as claimed by Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević and the director of the Office of the Serbian Government for Kosovo, Petar Petković.
But the Serbian president said today that Serbia has an obligation to protect the Serbian people in Kosovo because it is quite clear that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti wants the destruction and persecution of the Serbian people in Kosovo.
Vučić added that during 72 hours, he will inform the public about “what it is that the so-called international community has not fulfilled and what Serbia is asking for and what Serbia will do” and added that it is to be expected that they will come before the Assembly of Serbia with “far-reaching and important proposals during October”.
“When you eliminate 5,800 jobs and people can’t get married or divorced anymore, they can’t get a certificate that their mother or father has passed away, when they can’t do anything that anyone in the modern world can do, just thanks to illegal, criminal and the illegal features of Albin Kurti. After that, only words of condemnation come from Europe and Quinta, and nothing is seen in action, then no matter how much your hands are tied, no matter how difficult a position you are in since 2008, and even before that , you must take actions that will either lead to the return of certain rights, or say that you are unable to protect and preserve your people,” Vučić said.
Lajčak’s visit today comes at a time of stagnation in the dialogue on the normalization of relations between Pristina and Belgrade and new tensions between the two sides after the Kosovo authorities closed five parallel Serbian institutions in the north of the country and the European Union and the United States expressed concern and warned Pristina not to make unilateral moves
The visit was organized in order to plan a new meeting at the level of the main negotiators after another round of dialogue on the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo ended unsuccessfully in June without a direct meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
Serbia does not recognize the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo and considers it its territory.
In February 2023, both sides in Brussels accepted the European plan for Kosovo, which is also supported by the United States, and a month later in Ohrid and the annex to that plan, but they have not yet come close to a solution, while mutual relations are accompanied by new tensions, especially after the announcement of the Kosovo the authorities that they will open the bridge over the Ibar that separates Mitrovica into two parts.
The European Union envoy for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajčak, said on Friday in Pristina that the bridge on the Ibar River, which separates Mitrovica into two parts, should be opened in cooperation with international partners.
The Kosovo government insists on opening the bridge on the Ibar River that separates Mitrovica into two parts, as this is part of the agreement reached back in 2017, but such an initiative is currently not acceptable to the US or the members of the European Union.
