Pristina denies allegation of Interpol warrants, RFE reports (N1)
Kosovo’s authorities expect to join Interpol during the forthcoming organisation's yearly General Assembly meeting and rejected statements from Belgrade that if that happened, thousands of Serbs would be on international warrants, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported on Wednesday.
Kosovo Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli's chief-of-staff Jetlir Zyberaj told the RSF that “we won't look for vengeance since we are not of that mentality, but we will process all criminals.”
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic earlier said that if Kosovo joined Interpol, 5.000 Serbs would appear on the international warrants.
Pristina hopes that during the Interpol conference in the United Arab Emirates on November 18-21, Kosovo will have the support of the two-thirds majority of the present members to join them.
Belgrade opposes the eventual membership, saying it would be against the Interpol policy stipulating that only the UN member or observer countries can join.
It also argued that Kosovo wanted to join Interpol and use it as the back door to the UN membership.
“I believe that a (5.000) figure was unreal. It could have been 500.000 or 500,” Serbia’s former Internal Affairs co-minister Bozidar Prelevic told the RSF.
He added that the figure served to spread fear among Serbs.
“The issue I believe this regime (in Serbia) has a problem with is that some people who, legally or not, are doing some things in Kosovo that are important to the authorities here and are hiding in the north. It wouldn't suit them to be on a warrant which would prevent them from travelling," Prelevic said.