Petkovic: We are concerned about the further development of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija; Kurti doesn't want peace

The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, emphasized that after yesterday's meeting in Brussels and the rejection of the CSM talks by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, he was concerned about how the situation in Kosovo would develop.

Petkovic stated that this was also the first impression of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, as well as the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, who had said that he was worried that new crises would open up in northern Kosovo.

Petkovic added that the normalization of relations and discussions on it almost do not exist.

"On the Pristina side, there is a denial of everything that has been agreed upon when it comes to the CSM agreements. We heard Kurti yesterday say that there is no Management Team for him and that it has no role, even though there is a special agreement on its mandate. The Management Team has four members, and two ladies who professionally presented the draft statute that was created almost five years ago were at the meeting. The whole time during their presentation, Kurti was mocking them with Bislimi, disrupting the flow of their presentation, and trying to belittle those two wonderful ladies. Such hatred towards everything that is Serbian is unbelievable. He is not willing to negotiate about anything; he is not interested in forming the CSM," Petkovic pointed out.

As he added, the Management Team had four months in 2018 to prepare the document, which was done diligently and is based on four agreements from Brussels.

"Our side adheres to the signed documents. You can see the kind of hypocrisy; they ask us to respect something that is not signed, even though the President clearly stated our red lines, and on the other hand, we have four signed agreements that Pristina has committed to, and they refuse to implement them, not to mention that the EU signature was put on the Brussels Agreement," Petkovic said.

He emphasized that Kurti does not want peace, new agreements, or the CSM.

"Since he came to power, he has been repeating that he does not want the formation of the CSM. It is necessary for us because it represents a mechanism for the protection of the collective and individual rights of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. Kurti wants to expel the Serbian people, which is why we are going from one crisis to another," Petkovic stated.

According to him, Serbia will not allow the CSM to be at the level of a non-governmental organization, adding that it has been fighting for its formation for ten years.

Petkovic emphasizes that the third point of yesterday's talks was precisely about the situation on the ground after "the anti-democratic elections in northern Kosovo."

"We had elections where only 3.4% of people turned out to vote, 1,500 Albanians and 13 Serbs, and now the situation is such that Albanians have been elected as some sort of mayors. There is now a deadline until May 28, from the moment when the Central Election Commission announced the election results until the moment when they are supposed to take office. These are all situations that now raise new questions and new security dilemmas in front of us. From that perspective, the EU has proposed a transitional solution, which Kurti rejected, and our side accepted because it is important for us to maintain peace and stability," Petkovic said.

He told citizens of Serbia and the Kosovo people that, no matter how difficult and painful it is to talk with Kurti, peace and the lives of Serbs in Kosovo must be preserved.

"That is important; everything else makes no sense, there is no future, and if we do not have dialogue, if we are in a dead-end that Albin Kurti has led us into, how can we talk about the future and compromise?" Petkovic asked.

He emphasized that it was up to the EU and the international community to put pressure on Pristina.

"So we will see if he will perceive things differently then, because without talking and with this kind of repressive behavior from Albin Kurti, I don't see how we can move forward, and I don't see how we can talk about compromise because that is a forbidden word in Pristina," Petkovic concluded.