President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic says he would “fight for Serbia with all his heart” during the UN Security Council session on Kosovo, to be held on Monday.
During an unscheduled press conference in Belgrade on Sunday, Vucic announced he would travel to New York on an Air Serbia plane, and “hopes it won’t be late” – and noted that he would present “what Serbia thinks” after UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) chief Zahir Tanin addresses the Council.
“And when all of them take their turn, after Thaci, I will be entitled to a reply at the end. I have not yet decided in which part to speak English or Serbian. However, it is not my job to persuade our people, but those there who want to listen to it. By tomorrow we will make the final decision,” Vucic said on Sunday.
The president also sent greetings to the Serbian people in Kosovo and thanked them for their struggle, saying that the mayors of all ten (Serb) municipalities had sent a clear message to Hashim Thaci about who their president is, and which their state is.
“The army of Kosovo was formed against the interests of the Serb people. It cannot pose danger our army, but it can endanger the survival of our people. All that is the opposite of what Thaci was saying,” Vucic stated.
President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci will also take part in the UN Security Council session.
The session will be held at the request of Serbia and Russia, submitted after Pristina decided to form an army in Kosovo.
The session will be open, despite the Western members of the Council asking for a closed meeting, reports Serbian media.
Friday’s news conference
After Pristina’s decision on Friday, Vucic held a news conference, requesting the UN Security Council session, and announcing that Belgrade “would not participate in the dialogue until Pristina withdraws all its decisions on taxes,” and told Serb people in Kosovo that Serbia would not give up, the Serbian government said on its website.
Vucic also said that “Serbia would closely monitor everything that is happening in Kosovo and Metohija and will wait for Pristina to abolish taxes.”
He said that Serbia will attend all regional meetings, will always discuss the future preservation of peace, but will not accept new starting positions in which it will not be equal.
“It is the only policy that Serbia can take. Serbia will pursue a policy of peace and respect for all. I am grateful to all who acted rationally and sensibly, especially friends in Moscow and Beijing,” Vucic said.
The president said that he received a message from the Russian state leadership, to whom he was very grateful, adding that he also talked with the Chinese ambassador.
He expressed his gratitude to the Cypriot president for being remarkable and very honest at the EU session, as well as countries that did not recognize Kosovo, but also on the reaction of the Hungarian state and the NATO Secretary General, who reacted in a correct manner and who understood well what kind of the dangers such a decision can bring.
Message from Moscow
Half an hour before Vucic started his address on Friday, he received Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Chepurin, who brought him “a message from Moscow.”
Serbian media reported that on Friday the Russian Foreign Ministry called on international forces in Kosovo, above all UNMIK and KFOR, to disband all armed formations of Kosovo Albanians.
The ministry said in a statement posted on its website that the formation of an army of the unrecognized Kosovo represents was violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and leads toward destabilization.
“We are convinced that international presence in Kosovo, first of all the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Kosovo Force, are obliged, in conformity with their mandates and acting on the basis of provision 9b and article 15 of United Nations Resolution 1244, to take urgent and exhaustive measures for the demilitarization and disbanding of any armed units of Kosovo Albanians,” the Russian ministry said, TASS reported.
The rhetoric of a number of US and European Union politicians, of senior NATO generals, who are trying to convince themselves and those around them that Pristina’s decision does not change the essence of the Kosovo Security Force, raises eyebrows, the Russian MFA said.
“We note that Kosovo’s ‘prime minister’ Ramush Haradinaj, who, acting on US orders, is pursuing a policy of intensifying the crisis, systematically threatens to restore violence and war in the Balkans, represents the embodiment of the unsustainability of the Western propaganda concept that actively imposes the creation of Kosovo’s ‘statehood’,” the statement said.
