Petkovic meets with Botsan-Kharchenko

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic met with Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko on Monday, voicing Belgrade's strong concerns over the arrest of the Office's Assistant Director Igor Popovic as well as over political and unlawful rulings by a Pristina court that has been convicting Serbs without any evidence whatsoever, representing a "political instrument in the hands of Albin Kurti."

Through arbitrary arrests and rulings that are not based on rule of law but on political retaliation and ethnically-based criteria, Pristina, in fact, continues the process of intimidating and persecuting Serbs, and an institutional ethnic cleansing of the territory of Kosovo-Metohija, the Office said in a statement.

"Pristina continues to make escalatory moves and heighten tensions and spark crises on the ground and, through its moves, including the arrest of my Assistant Igor Popovic, it directly makes dialogue pointless and suppresses it," Petkovic noted.

He stressed that Belgrade and Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija expected the international community to fulfil its part of the mandate and protect the Serbs and above all, guarantee them peace and security and that they would not become "victims of political trials orchestrated by the Kurti regime," but that a Community of Serb Municipalities, for which they have been waiting for more than 12 years, would be formed.