Vucic: An appeal to release the remaining imprisoned Serbs; it would be tragic if something happened to them

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, appealed today to the international community to influence Pristina to release the remaining Serbs who had been arrested, because there were significant reports of their mistreatment, and warned that it would be tragic if something had happened to them.

"My plea to the international community is to influence the release of the remaining Serbs, especially since we have significant reports that they are being mistreated and that they are having a hard time enduring the conditions they are in. It would be tragic if something happened to them. It would have incalculable consequences," Vucic said in a statement to journalists.

He appealed to both EULEX and the international community.

He emphasized that some of the arrested Serbs had been in custody for more than a year.

"It is senseless that they are held in prison for more than a year for a crime such as abuse in the Brezovica ski resort, for which they are accused. There is no reason for Milenkovic, Bozovic, and some others to be in custody," Vucic said.

Asked about the statement of the chief negotiator of Pristina, Besnik Bislimi, that the elections in the north of Kosovo would be held only after the EU lifted the sanctions and the Union's response that the elections had to be held as soon as possible, he said that he did not want to play the "blame game".

"Let them do their job. They don't want those elections, the only thing they want is to arrest and harass the Serbs," Vucic underlined.

When asked to comment on the statement of the former Envoy for Kosovo, Pieter Feith, who said that the US was losing patience with Pristina due to the lack of progress in the dialogue, Vucic reminded that Feith had implemented the so-called supervised independence until 2012, so his reaction was all the more strange, and that, he said, was the reason for the great nervousness shown by the Kosovo authorities.

He also pointed out that Feith was certainly someone who was respected in the US, and from whom Serbia could not expect praise, because he was "a champion of Kosovo's independence".