BELGRADE – The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric urged Farid Zarif, the head of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), on Monday to additionally encourage Kfor, Eulex and the Pristina authorities to ensure security to Serbs in the province.
After a meeting with Zarif, Djuric told reporters that the incidents in the wake of the recent Serbia vs Albania soccer match in Belgrade – targeting Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, as well as ethnic Albanians in other parts of Serbia – are worthy of every form of condemnation.
“The incidents that have taken place have been condemned by all relevant Serbian institutions – both the incidents targeting the Kosovo-Metohija Serbs and the incidents that we have seen in other parts of our territory, which targeted businesses owned by Albanians who are honest, hard-working and loyal citizens of Serbia,” he said.
Djuric also noted that ethnic Albanians deserve that their property be secure and that Serbia, on its part, is “doing and will do everything to ensure that all citizens and their property are protected.”
“We expect that the provincial institutions, the international community and all those responsible for security in Kosovo-Metohija do their part of the work…, and that is something we discussed today,” he said.
Djuric said that, since Kfor, Eulex and OSCE all operate under UN auspices, he conveyed to Zarif “our expectations that he additionally encourage those who have the authority to ensure security” to the Serbs.
“In order to have completely normal life in Kosovo-Metohija, we must resolve the problem systematically and it is important that the perpetrators of all attacks be caught, but it is equally important to work substantially on improving and normalising relations, however much those who are provoking us may want to prevent this from happening,” he said.
Those who are behind the provocations and those who have orchestrated “this trouble do not want us to normalise the relations with the Albanians and do not want us to normalise the relations between Belgrade and Pristina,” Djuric said.
“It is in someone’s interest that there are always conflicts and some abnormal situations here – well, we do not want that, we want to live normally with everyone,” he said.
“The Serbs and Serbia will not be the cause of problems,” said the head of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija, and noted that “we want stability.”
In the wake of the incidents at the Serbia vs Albania soccer match in Belgrade, when a drone carrying a flag of Greater Albania was flown inside the stadium, Serb-owned property in Kosovo-Metohija was targeted by attacks and threatening graffiti appeared as well.
At the same time, bakeries owned by ethnic Albanians were torched and stoned in several cities in Vojvodina.
BELGRADE – Serbia’s primary interests in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) are stability, peace and development of economic and normal human relations, Director of the Serbian government’s Office for KiM Marko Djuric said Monday.
After a meeting he had with Farid Zarif, head of the UN mission in KiM (UNMIK), Djuric told reporters that an agreement had been reached at the meeting to have UNMIK and its agencies remain in KiM for as long as possible.
Djuric said that he had told Zarif that Serbia’s primary interests in Kosovo-Metohija were “stability, normality and peace and turning to the economy and development of normal human relations.”
The primary interest of Serbia’s is to find through dialogue “the solutions to problems that are huge and very serious and that require sitting at the table to find solutions all the time,” he said.
Djuric said that the discussion touched on various issues, from setting up the future provincial government to municipal budgets in northern Kosovo.
When it comes to the setting up of the new government, “we have taken the position that we want the Serbs to participate in large numbers, with pre-defined objectives, in a manner as good in terms of quality and as serious as can be,” he said.
The two officials also discussed the way the budget of the Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo-Metohija should look like, as northern Kosovo municipalities are to be financed by provincial institutions for the first time, he said.
Djuric said that it was necessary to make extra effort “to adjust the budgets to avoid any overlapping of projects and to allow no room for manipulation.”
The Office for KiM director said that they had agreed that “the United Nations and its experts and numerous agencies should remain present in KiM as long as possible and they should continue to offer support to the Serb community.”
“I think the UN plays a stabilizing role in terms of creating the preconditions for the talks that we have in Brussels under the auspices of the EU,” Djuric said, adding that Serbia saw UN Security Council Resolution 1244 as the basis for all talks.
