Starovic: Kurti's moves draw only verbal condemnations by US, EU

BELGRADE - Commenting on the closure of Post of Serbia branch offices in Kosovo-Metohija, Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment and Veteran and Social Affairs Nemanja Starovic said on Wednesday Pristina PM Albin Kurti's moves reflected a pattern of unilateral measures that drew only verbal condemnations by the US and the EU but no concrete measures.

Speaking to Prva TV, Starovic said a lack of reaction by the US and the EU was a result of a lack of political will.

Kurti is aware of geopolitical changes and is trying to antagonise the Serbs, he said.

"The situation on the ground is very difficult. The pressure on the Serbs has been very notable in the past two years. The most vulnerable members of the Serb community - pensioners, people on welfare benefits, people in small communities who are now being denied access to basic health care - are particularly impacted. A small outpatient office that used to serve the nearly one hundred Serbs who remain in Pristina is now closed," Starovic said, noting that 40,000 Serbs had lived in Pristina before the 1999 war.

We must not fall into Kurti's trap, because he wants a war conflict between Serbia and NATO, he said.

"While avoiding the trap of an armed conflict with the NATO alliance, we must do everything in our power to additionally support our people, above all, through economic measures," Starovic said.

He said practically all Serb families in Kosovo-Metohija depended on some kind of financial support provided by Belgrade.

Commenting on the announced opening of a bridge on the Ibar River between the north and the south of Kosovska Mitrovica, Starovic said it was a "major potential point of escalation."

"For the Serbs, it was the last point of resistance, the point where Kosovska Mitrovica was safeguarded," he said, adding that KFOR presence guaranteed the security of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.