Odalovic: KFOR must react more seriously to Kurti's provocations toward the Serbian community

The President of the Commission for the Missing Persons of the Government of Serbia, Veljko Odalovic, told RTS that there was no readiness in Pristina and the international community to call everything that had happened on Christmas Day in Kosovo by its right name.

"The international community - many slept through those days. This had to be called by its real name and a message had to be sent out that this kind of thing will not be tolerated. In one day there were attacks on children carrying the Serbian Christmas tree, and they were injured, and a guy, who was returning from the church, was attacked. The days and the most sensitive categories of the population were selected. Although Pristina acted quickly, they arrested the one who tried to kill the children, but the comments show that they are not ready to face the brutality and severity of the crime," Odalovic emphasized.

At the same time, the protest in Strpce had a clear message - to ask KFOR to provide guarantees, to be the one who would create security for all those living in Kosovo.

"When they came in 1999, there were 50,000 well-prepared peacekeepers and two pogroms happened before their eyes. Now, something similar is happening, just not on that scale. It would probably be more extensive if there were not certain brakes, that at this moment, Pristina has to hit because it does not get support for everything it does. What happened in December, how close we were to a conflict thanks to Pristina's unilateral moves and the international community's silence over it," Odalovic pointed out.
Odalovic believes that KFOR should increase its presence everywhere.

"That enclave of ours in Strpce requires special security precisely because of its isolation. Every Serb from Strpce needs 100 kilometers to reach the administrative crossing. At that moment, if there is no protection, he is at the mercy of such potential attacks," Odalovic emphasized.
Because of propaganda, he notes, the danger is long-term.

"The most dangerous are those who were members of the so-called KLA who took part in conflicts. They glorify themselves, but what has been happening since 1990; thirty-two generations have been born. If the situation is that because they are the Serbs carrying the Serbian Christmas tree they can be shot at, then we have a serious problem. What is being talked about in Pristina, in the circles on which the future of coexistence and relationships that need to be built depends? We did not accidentally enter the dialogue, to solve those problems that burdened us both Serbs and Albanians, to create one community through the CSM where Serbs can have collective rights," Odalovic notes.

All of that, he adds, has been demolished, because someone in Pristina realized that it leads to some solutions that keep the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija with certain rights and security.

"Serbs did not accidentally agree to take part in local elections so that the CSM could be formed then, they did not accidentally join the Kosovo police service, to provide security. That was a concept and a model. All of that was destroyed by Kurti. Today we have an attempt by Kurti to find some new Serbs, he announced a competition for police officers. His minister, Nenad Rasic, who does not represent anyone except for Albin Kurti's spokesmen, appeared to give an additional argument that not all Serbs thought the way Brussels thought, that now all the coming emissaries or mediators were looking for the implementation of what had been signed and then to talk further," Odalovic said.

What is happening in Kosovo, he points out, continues.

"Let's remember the seventies and eighties and everything that happened. 40,000 of us lived in Pristina," Odalovic says.

According to him, KFOR had confirmed that the UN Resolution 1244 was alive and that they were responsible for the security.

"On the same day when they gave the guarantee, two young Serbs were wounded and one was beaten. KFOR must react more seriously to the provocations that Kurti makes towards the Serbian community. They are silent on the fact that Kurti announced a competition for members of the Kosovo army," Odalovic added. 

KFOR, he adds, is not NATO, but a mission established based on the UN resolution 1244.

"Since they came to Kosovo, there are fewer and fewer Serbs," Odalovic said.
He says he does not doubt that the international forces did not condemn the attack loudly enough and that this is what offends him.

"Yesterday, Kurti boasted that he had established bases in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, that ROSU units occupied that area, and at the same time he announced a competition for the recruitment of Kosovo police officers, where he would decide who would be recruited and set criteria that he would be able to control. We have a problem - they are trying to make the CSM meaningless by the fact that Pristina itself wants to form municipalities and the police," Odalovic notes.

According to Odalovic, the process of searching for missing persons was stopped by Albin Kurti.

"It is not a topic for them. I feel sorry for the families because I deeply believe that the process of searching for missing persons must not stop. There are thousands of people out there looking for their loved ones," Odalovic concluded.