Petkovic: Kurti openly threatens the Serbs and directly denies the purpose of dialogue

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, emphasized that Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti had once again revealed the "face of a war chief" and had made the most explicit threat to the Serbs in Kosovo.

Regarding Kurti's statement that he would deploy an additional 500 police officers and 600 KSF members in the next year and that no one would stop them in the south or the north, Petkovic stated that the additional police and paramilitary forces that Kurti intended to engage were not meant to deter any external threat because no such threat existed.

As Petkovic noted in his statement, "This is about strengthening formations for intimidating and terrorizing the Serbian population in Kosovo to continue the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs by Kurti".

"By stating that he and his punitive expedition 'cannot be stopped either in the south or in the north', Kurti clearly defines the Serbs as enemies to be confronted with force and weapons", Petkovic emphasized.

He also added that according to the Brussels Agreement, special units and the KSF had no business in Serbian areas.

"We once again emphasize that Kurti's special police, especially the paramilitary formation 'KSF', have no business in predominantly Serbian areas because, according to the Brussels Agreement, the principles for establishing the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities, and international guarantees, the Serbs are responsible for maintaining law and order where they live", Petkovic stated.

According to him, this is not just one of Kurti's numerous threats.

"It is also a direct denial of the very purpose of dialogue, and it is clear that he doesn't intend to promote coexistence and interethnic trust because his plan is a mono-ethnic 'Kosovo', and strengthening the police and KSF is a means to achieve that goal", Petkovic stated.

He emphasized that the poor economic situation in Kosovo could not be resolved by arming young Albanians.

"In addition to being an explicit threat to the stability of the region, Kurti's militarization is also a symptom of the economic unsustainability of the self-proclaimed 'Kosovo' because social problems cannot be solved by giving guns to unemployed young Albanians; they are resolved by building the economy", Petkovic stated.

He added that the first step towards normalization was to restrain Kurti.

"For those who may not have realized it until now, today it should be quite obvious that the first and most important step towards a peaceful and stable region is to decisively restrain Albin Kurti and his warlike politics", Petkovic concluded in the statement.