NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg today asked Serbia to bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 24 terrorist attack in northern Kosovo and to refrain from escalating relations with Kosovo.
Stoltenberg held a long meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade. The attack in the village of Banjska on 24 September and communication between NATO and Serbia were the main topics the two discussed. Stoltenberg is in Serbia as part of his four-day tour of the Western Balkans. Earlier, he visited Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
"Punishment for the perpetrators"
Referring to the terrorist attack in the village of Banjska, northern Kosovo, on 24 September, which was carried out by a heavily armed Serbian group, Jens Stoltenberg said: "In September we witnessed violence. Such attacks are unacceptable, the perpetrators must be punished."
"For two decades, KFOR has guaranteed security in Kosovo for all communities. In May, KFOR soldiers were injured for life during protests in Serb-majority municipalities," Stoltenberg recalled.
He pointed to the reinforcement of NATO forces in Kosovo in recent weeks with more than 1000 soldiers. The Secretary General announced that NATO is considering a permanent reinforcement of the peacekeeping force. He insisted on better communication between the Serbian army and KFOR so that an escalation of tensions between Kosovo and Serbia could be avoided.
Stoltenberg again called for the establishment of the Serb-majority Association of Municipalities. According to him, the Association will bring a reduction of tensions.
"The West is only interested in the village of Banjska"
For his part, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stressed that Serbia has good communication with NATO but will decide for itself where and how to deploy its troops.
Vucic said that "it is unlikely that an Association of Serbian Municipalities will be formed as long as Albin Kurti is prime minister of Kosovo".
The Serbian president justified the 24 September terrorist attack in the village of Banjska by a Serbian heavily armed group. According to him, "the West is only interested in Banjska".
"We have a different view of what happened. I would like to remind the Secretary General and everybody else that all this happened because some people ran an election through with 3% of the people and when the Serbs revolted, special police were deployed to deal with that tension. As far as Banjska is concerned, this happened a year after some people deceived Serbia and signed a declaration, I am talking about the US and EU representatives, that people who were involved in violence against Serbs would not be prosecuted. The Albanian police have nothing to look for in northern Kosovo," Vucic said. "It is important for us to cooperate with NATO and KFOR in the hope that we will guarantee the security of our people in Kosovo. We have a different view of what is going on, but we understand well what the demands of the West are and what the demands of NATO are," he added.
According to the Serbian president, it is unlikely that an Association of Serbian Municipalities will be formed while Albin Kurti is prime minister.
Aleksandar Vučić also said that Serbia has good communication with NATO, but it decides for itself where and how to deploy its troops.
"Stoltenberg said that KFOR guaranteed peace and security for all communities in Kosovo, but there was no need to guarantee peace and security for anyone other than the Serbs. Only Serbs were threatened, only Serbs were attacked, Albanians were never attacked," the Serbian president added. According to him, 13% of Serbs have left the north of Kosovo in the last year "due to enormous pressure, arrests, harassment and threats from the regime in Pristina".
Later today, the NATO Secretary General will meet with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić. By the end of the day, Stoltenberg will travel to North Macedonia, where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski. /BGNES
