Jevtic: Kurti will rather leave the government than form the CSM

The President of Strpce Municipality, Dalibor Jevtic, said today that the senior advisor of the State Department, Derek Chollet, had told Albin Kurti that the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities would be formed by spring, with or without him, RTV reports.

"Such information was conveyed to us at the meeting with Chollet and the American delegation, but I don't expect Kurti to do that and I am afraid that there will be another incident because whenever such a message comes from Washington, he deviates attention from that, in that way,” Jevtic said for Tanjug.

He pointed out that it was clear that the European Union had no mechanisms of influence on Kurti, in order to force him to implement any agreement and that Washington played a key role. Jevtic added that all the envoys in Kosovo more or less understood that the problem was in Pristina and assessed that Kurti did not want to be remembered for having reached an agreement with the Serbs, and especially not for having given them some rights in Kosovo.

"I think that Kurti will not form the CSM and that, no matter how much pressure there is on him, he will rather step down from power than fulfill Pristina's international obligations", Jevtic emphasized.

He said that among the Serbian population in Strpce, after the shooting and physical attack on Serbian young men on Christmas Day, there were mixed feelings of fear, defiance, and pride.

"But in essence, there is certainly a concern from citizens, which I conveyed in conversations with representatives of KFOR and the Kosovo police. On the other hand, there is great distrust in Kosovo institutions. We warned that something like this could happen if Albin Kurti's rhetoric continued; he calls us criminals and terrorists and that someone thinks that it is okay to shoot the Serbs, because he shoots us as terrorists and criminals and that he will not be convicted for that," Jevtic said.

He emphasized that the arrest of the man who had shot at the Serbs dd not end the problem.

"The narrative that appeared after the arrest of the perpetrator of this attempted murder, that he did it in self-defense and that he is a hero, warns that we are far from the fact that everything is over with just the arrest. On the contrary, it must be done preventively, and that is what I asked from KFOR and the Kosovo Police," Jevtic said.

He added that their presence on the field had increased in recent days, but he assessed that it was not only a matter of seeing that presence but also of changing other things.

"That is why the biggest responsibility lies with those who spread such rhetoric and politics of hatred towards a people. There is the source of the problem and the international community must understand that because they are the ones who can tell Kurti that enough is enough and that the results of his policy are a drastically increased number of incidents", he believes.

He assessed that the only good news that had come out of his meetings with representatives of the Kosovo police had been that a certain number of Serbs from the police station in Strpce had been deployed in the north of Kosovo.
Jevtic said that January 6 had been a very difficult day because people had been full of anger because of everything that had happened and that it was very difficult to keep the situation under control.

"Our interest is not that, but peace, and that's why we will fight democratically. We also had a big protest on January 8, although some wanted there to be incidents and that the Serbs should be accused, we sent a message of peace and that it is not us who cause problems. Perhaps in such situations, it is easiest to use incendiary rhetoric with speeches that will please some, but that is done by those who do not speak. We are responsible and I see how much President Vucic is being attacked for his decisions to resolve the crisis in the north peacefully and for removing the barricade. They don't know that the president did exactly what every statesman should do, which is to ensure peace and life," Jevtic emphasized.