Drecun: Pristina is preparing the military-police occupation of northern Kosovo

The Pristina authorities were preparing a military-police occupation of the north of Kosovo, the president of the parliamentary committee for Kosovo and Metohija, Milovan Drecun, said today and assessed that there was no question of de-escalation, RTV reported.

"So, now the ground is being prepared for what should be... a complete occupation, a military-police occupation of the north of Kosovo. And they did a large part of the work there, prepared the ground with these four bases, with the insertion of military Special Forces and I in general don't see a hint of any retreat," Drecun told Tanjug.

He reminded that there were now demands in Pristina that the KFOR commander should allow members of the Kosovo Security Forces - the future so-called army of Kosovo - to enter the north.

Drecun believes that the reaction of the international community is reflected on the ground as approval and support for the Prime Minister of the temporary institutions of Pristina, Albin Kurti, for his actions.

"And when, on the one hand, there is talk of introducing some kind of sanctions and measures because of his unilateral moves and he is threatened if he does not obey the instructions of the West, it can be seen that it is superficial," Drecun said.

In this regard, he also mentioned the statements of the Special US Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar.

"Maybe he will do something right now, and then there is the additional thing that Escobar said, in my opinion, which is absolutely unacceptable. First, he says there is an agreement from Ohrid - there is no such agreement. He says that it is a legally binding agreement and says that Belgrade must recognize territorial integrity, the sovereignty of Kosovo, and to open the way for them to international organizations," Drecun says.

He noted that when Kurti talked about the need to establish the rule of law and arrest some criminal gangs, it was clear that there was no question of de-escalation because he would continue to arrest people in the north of Kosovo.

"Just to inform you, the other day he tried to hand over to (EU Envoy for dialogue) Miroslav Lajcak some list with 350, allegedly, Serbian criminals in the north. Lajcak refused to receive that paper. So it is a list according to which Kurti now wants to continue some kind of arrests, so tell me if there are any hints that the situation will calm down. It won't," Drecun said.

He said that it was KFOR who was helping Kurti in all this.

"They believe that it is necessary to determine who is responsible for the wounding of the members of KFOR and they asked members of the Kosovo Police to arrest members of, as they said, criminal gangs, in addition to the peaceful people who were protesting. (KFOR Commander General Andrea) Galliani says - those were criminal gangs and he should arrest them and Kurti started arresting them. And KFOR assists him in all of that," Drecun says.

According to him, there should be no surprises.

"If you continue to arrest the Serbs, if you continue to terrorize, like what is happening now in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, where the number of members of special parapolice units is only increasing. So they are not reducing their number of units in the north, they are bringing new personnel there and increasing the number of members and they want to build new bases," Drecun said.

Recalling that KFOR acts according to the UN Resolution 1244, which does not talk about the border between Kosovo and Serbia, he asked how the commander of KFOR could even allow the existence of some border police and for them to be present in the kilometer zone where it can be only with the approval of the KFOR commander.