Simic: The new North Mitrovica Municipal Assembly is illegal and illegitimate; special units to withdraw from the north to preserve peace

The vice-president of the Serb List, Igor Simic, told Kosovo Online that the Crisis Staff believed that the newly formed North Mitrovica Municipal Assembly and the new majority made up of Albanians were illegal and illegitimate and that he did not accept it.

After the session of the Crisis Staff, which consists of political representatives of the Serbs from the north of Kosovo and prominent individuals, he said that they wanted to preserve peace and had called on citizens to remain persistent and restrained at the barricades, but also that in order to preserve peace, the special police units needed to withdraw from the north.

"We want to preserve the peace and we call on the citizens to preserve the peace, in order to preserve it, the policemen must withdraw. It is obvious that their presence in the mixed areas in North Mitrovica causes fear among the citizens because armed Special Forces of Albanian nationality are walking around our citizens' homes; they stop and harass our citizens; search their vehicles. We have a situation where people cannot normally leave their yards," Simic said.

He thanked the citizens at the barricades, whose number had been increasing, he pointed out, and who had decided to stay in these areas and were ready to defend their right to live a normal life in the 21st century.

"Every day there are more and more people at the barricades because they are, first of all, aware that this is the reaction of the Serbs to what Pristina wants, which is the expulsion of the people from these areas, and we once again appeal to the citizens to remain persistent but restrained, to respect, especially, the international representatives of KFOR and EULEX because they are there on the ground in accordance with international agreements," Simic said.

He also added that the Crisis Staff did not accept the illegal verdict against Ivan Todosijevic without any evidence, only because he is a Serb.