Vucic: We will do our best to prevent a conflict, but not at the cost of a pogrom of the Serbs

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic asked today why Dusan Obrenovic was still in prison, even though he was known to be innocent.

Vucic told TV Prva that Obrenovic was a metaphor for all innocently arrested Serbs.

"EULEX is announcing today that they are monitoring 109 cases of the arrested Serbs, and there are 11 from the last period. There are arrested Serbs from Strpce who have already been in custody for two years, who have not injured or killed anyone," he explained, adding that such statements insulted Serbia and the Serbs.

He said that the problem was when EULEX said that it monitored such cases, and that was why he had asked Brussels, Washington, and Berlin why Dusan Obrenovic's detention had been extended.

"You all lie together that you don't know that he is completely innocent. I took it as a metaphor. All innocent Serbs were arrested. They were arrested on the personal orders of Albin Kurti and Xhelal Svecla. I ask all the liars of Washington, Brussels, and Berlin. Do not lie that there is any reason and that you follow something. NATO soldiers dragged him into their group at the moment when the people started to march. He didn't raise his hand, he was sitting, and they have a video. He didn't touch anyone. He didn't do anything. They beat him to death. They spoke in particular that will happen to him because he converted to Orthodoxy. They can't let him go because even now he has terrible injuries," Vucic emphasized.

They didn't take Danilo's shirt off, they wanted to humiliate him

Vucic said that the Kosovo Police had not removed his son Danilo's T-shirt with the inscription "Surrender is not an option", adding that he had been subjected to brutal torture and harassment.

"They wanted to humiliate him and told him that he had five minutes to take off his shirt. You saw several lies. They said they hadn't stopped him three times, so we proved it in a video format," he added.

He said, however, that Danilo had felt the torture minimally compared to the Serbs from Kosovo, who were subjected to brutal torture, arrested, and harassed.

He added that the first lie had been how they had made him take off his shirt, because they had not, since he hadn’t allowed it.

"It was clear to them that even though they pointed their guns at him, there would be a conflict. They gave up because Danilo will not hand over his shirt and the Serbian flag," he added.

Vucic said that Danilo had been going to Kosovo since 2011, that he had been going every Vidovdan for 13 days, and that he did not provoke anyone.

"He didn't provoke, hurt, or insult anyone. He was wearing a T-shirt, similar to the one he wears every year," he explained.

He said that they had not seen the shirt as a provocation, but that they had only wanted to humiliate him.

President Vucic said that he was afraid of a conflict and that he would do his best to prevent it from happening, but not at the cost of a pogrom against the Serbs in Kosovo.

Asked if he was afraid of a war in Kosovo, he said that he was afraid because of the completely irrational anti-Serbian moves of Albin Kurti and the extremely unsatisfactory attitude of the Western countries, which will always ask for the story of "both sides".

"They will always be on the side of their ‘son’. I am afraid, and I will do my best to prevent that from happening, but not at the cost of a pogrom against the Serbs," Vucic emphasized for TV Prva.

He pointed out that the citizens of Serbia needed factories, jobs, and investments...

They really don't care that Serbian rights are threatened

Vucic said that the Albanians were allowed to do everything, and while innocent Serbs lay in custody, they lied that Albanian police officers had been arrested on the territory of Kosovo.

"There is an indictment against the Albanian policemen, they were released pending trial. All the time they said that they had been arrested on the territory of Kosovo. They make things up, they lie so much that it doesn't make any sense. And when we say that we are ready to give people a polygraph - they say - these are some criminal structures... And they don't really care about everything, they can lie forever because they don't have any press, some Serbs are in prison, they are beaten a little, with bags on their heads, no rush... They really don't care when Serbian rights are threatened," Vucic said.

That is why, he says, he has so much concern for the Serbs in Kosovo.

I live for the factories, and Kurti to be the new Enver Hoxha or Zelenskyy, to expel all the Serbs

Speaking about Albin Kurti, Vucic said that he "is not a man in the true sense of the word", because, at one time, when he had spoken with Hashim Thaci, as a representative of Pristina, he had gone too far attacking Thaci and had said something that no honorable man had ever done saying that "Tachi's son could marry Vucic's daughter".

"What kind of a person must you be, to say something like that... When you hear that, it's clear to you that there is no conversation, no normality, no honor," the President of Serbia stated.

That is why, he points out, he is worried about the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

"I live for the ring road, factories, the progress of the Serbian economy, and Kurti to be the new Enver Hoxha; his only obsession is to expel the Serbs from their hearth. He is a student of Adem Demaci, a man who, while Tito took care of every Albanian, spent 18 years in prison... Kurti is his student," Vucic pointed out.

He added that this was why he was afraid for his son, but that he was proud as a father, even though he had begged him not to go, precisely because he knew who was in charge.

"You can't rationally look at why they are doing something, because there is nothing rational about it - Kurti wants to be Zelenskyy," Vucic said and added that he expected an offensive in Ukraine, with huge casualties because Kyiv expected to change the course of the war, before the Summit in Vilnius and wanted "carte blanche" for the EU.

"And, when that starts, you will see an additional offensive by Kurti in Kosovo, so I am asking people to be careful and stay away for a while. A man is not himself and I am afraid that the terror will become even worse and fiercer," Vucic underlined.

He asked again under which act KSF could exist because Resolution 1244 did not allow it.

"According to what act they exist, the Turks and others are arming them... You know by what right - the right of the stronger," Vucic said.

Martens wants to be a pioneer in conducting a new hunt against Serbia

Vucic said that they were trying to relativize the terrible things that Albin Kurti was doing, to say that no one was to blame and to tell Serbia that it had to face new circumstances.

Vucic, for TV Prva, when asked about the writing of the German journalist Michael Martens, said that he knew that Kurti was deliberately provoking, but that this journalist wanted to be a pioneer in carrying out a new hunt on Serbia because everything Serbian and Serbia had to be destroyed.

He pointed out that he was calling for the introduction of sanctions, and the essence was to relativize the terrible things that Kurti was doing, to say that no one was to blame and that Serbia could be told that it had to come to terms with the situation of a scorched country.

"It is not about a stupid man, but about a man who speaks excellent Serbian, Turkish. A well-educated journalist, who has never been on the Serbian side. And the intentions are something completely different," he underlined.

In response to claims that there are Vucic's thugs in Kosovo, he said that he had not brought anyone there and that they were people from Kosovo.

"Their argument is that one does not have the citizenship of Kosovo, so he does not have it because he did not want to take it like many, and he lives two kilometers from Zvecan. What did they do, they sat quietly until someone pushed them and chased them," he explained.

Vucic said that this writing had the intention of making the West return to the politics of the 1990s and that the Serbs would once again be the only culprits.

"He knows that Kurti is deliberately provoking. He wants to be the pioneer in carrying out a new hunt for Serbia because everything Serbian and Serbia must be destroyed. He says that we are not giving up on the Serbian world, and only because we have not given up on saying that in Montenegro there are 32 percent Serbs. Should we say that no Serbs are living there? His call is to "impose sanctions on them", and the essence is the realization of the terrible things that Kurti is doing," he added.

Vucic said that they wanted to bring us some statute for the CSM, and neither the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, nor others, nor Edi Rama had any rights to that.

He pointed out that those foundations paid money for protests in Serbia.

"If Serbia were to do something like that, a revolution would break out. If they were to say that Serbia is asking all parties in France, and now in Germany, to de-escalate the conflicts, that we are ready to provide support, and invite to Belgrade for talks, and condemn the excessive use of force, that would sound funny to you, but that's how they talk to us. They come to lecture us about all kinds of nonsense," Vucic said.

He denied Martens' claim that the US was now supporting Serbia because it sold weapons to Ukraine, adding that it might happen that some ammunition that we exported was found on a battlefield, but not tools or weapons.

"That story is irrelevant," he stated.

A large and difficult crisis is underway in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The President of Serbia also pointed out that he was concerned about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"There is currently a big and difficult crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I will not talk about it any further... I spoke with Milorad Dodik, with other actors in the Republika Srpska and I am waiting to hear what Dodik will say today," Vucic said.

He added that he feared that the foreigners had already made the decision to go "very hard".

Instead of a deficit, a surplus of 120 million euros

Vucic reported that, instead of the planned deficit, Serbia had a large surplus of 120 million euros, and that for the first six months of this year, a deficit of 95.7 billion dinars, or about 870 million euros, was expected.

"We have a surplus of 14.5 billion dinars, which is about 120 million euros. The result is a billion better than expected," he added.

He said that this was good news because there would be money to raise the salaries of educational and medical workers by 5.5 percent from September 1, and 10 percent from January 1.

"Pensioners should also be calm, because the 5.5 percent increase will start from October 1, and I expect 14.6 percent from January 1," he added.