Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Director, Marko Djuric reacted today to media reports, referring to unnamed NATO sources' statements on Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities, its powers and ways of financing.

Djuric’s statement in Serbian is available here: http://www.kim.gov.rs/v2447.php

"Threatening tones and untruths of unnamed NATO representatives are the continuation of violence against Kosovo Serbs that took place two weeks ago and an unacceptable interference in the democratic processes and efforts to peacefully overcome the conflict in the Western Balkans,” Office for Kosovo and Metohija Director Marko Djuric said in a press statement, Serbian media report.

“Interference of a military alliance in the implementation and interpretation of the agreements reached between Belgrade and Pristina with the mediation of the European Union is, to put it mildly, inadequate. Instead of trying to interfere in the political processes in a democratic state such as Serbia, NATO should better look after of what is in its mandate, namely the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and security of the non-Albanian population in Kosovo and Metohija,” Djuric said.

“Fortunately, we still do not live in a post-apocalyptic, anti-utopian world, in which our lives would be governed by some kind of global military junta, and I hope that we will never live in such a world. Only in such a world, the messages that we heard through the anonymous sources in Brussels, would be in line with the political realities and logic,” Djuric added.

"Community of Serbian Municipalities has to be formed in full accordance with the agreements reached with the EU’s mediation, and not according to the will of anonymous sources from NATO”.

“Of course, the Community of Serb Municipalities will also be financed from Belgrade, because this is one of the outcomes of the Brussels dialogue, and there is no “anonymous source” that would over coffee bar conversation, annul everything that has been achieved in the political and diplomatic process of many years, in which I remind once again, the mediator was the EU”.

“I will quote the point 17d of the agreement with Pristina, which states that the Association/Community of Serb Municipalities shall, among other things, be financed by: “contributions, grants, donations, as well as through the financial support of other associations and organizations, domestic and international, as well as by the Republic of Serbia ...”

“I ask NATO, among other things, where it was during the five years, which is the number of years that Pristina is being late in implementing a part of the First Brussels Agreement related to the Association/Community of Serb Municipalities, and since when is the interpretation of international agreements and exertion of pressures so that they would be amended in the mandate of the Alliance?” Djuric said.

“Of course, this is not in the NATO mandate, but it is in the NATO’s mandate to maintain the order established under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, in which there is no so-called independent Kosovo, which is lobbied by the anonymous source from Brussels,” Djuric said in a press statement, Serbian media reported.