Petkovic: We insisted on Community , Pristina not interested

BRUSSELS - The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said that, at all meetings in Thursday's round of the Brussels dialogue with Pristina, Belgrade's delegation had insisted on an immediate and urgent establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities as a framework for the survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels after the discussions, Petkovic noted that, however, Pristina was not interested in the Community and that its chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi had declined to say whether he accepted an EU draft statute for the Community.

"If there is no community, that brings up the issue of the survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija. Therefore, for us, it is already a humanitarian issue because the Serbs can no longer endure the terror by Kurti's police and Kurti's regime. I said that openly to Mr Bislimi, too," Petkovic noted.

He said he had also addressed the plight of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs and attacks on Serbian churches, temples and cemeteries.

"The Community of Serb Municipalities is a framework for the survival of our people, and we will insist on that. We said having that community, for which we have been waiting for a full 12 years, is a precondition for any further steps," Petkovic said.

He noted that, during a trilateral meeting, he had insisted on the Community and on launching concrete discussions about forming its statute.

He said Belgrade would be trying to safeguard peace and protect the Serbs, which he noted was not easy as "these are difficult times."

He said the numerous obstructions targeting Srpska lista in the electoral process had been discussed as well.

Petkovic said the issue of missing persons had been addressed, too.

"We said clearly that we are absolutely committed to resolving that issue, above all, for the benefit of families who have been waiting for the full truth about the plight of their loved ones for more than 20 years," Petkovic said.

He added that, three days before the start of campaigning for upcoming local elections in Kosovo-Metohija, Bislimi had not liked the idea of discussing the Community, or anything at all.

Both Kurti and Bislimi shun dialogue during electoral campaigns, he said.

"Even today, when they were supposed to refrain from unilateral moves - of which there have really been so many, almost on a daily basis - they were aiming to, above all, make the dialogue pointless because they unlawfully shut down and seized premises in Gracanica and Strpce that belong to the state of Serbia, the Post of Serbia. That shows the attitude of those people towards dialogue. We also spoke about all arrested Serbs incarcerated in Kurti's dungeons just because they have Serbian names and family names, just because they wore shirts with inscriptions and emblems in Serbian, which are an insult to no one," Petkovic said.

He said Bislimi had misused the dialogue by raising the issue of Bujanovac and Presevo, municipalities in the south of central Serbia.

Petkovic also said the discussions in Brussels had lasted for over seven hours and that he had had a tete-a-tete meeting with EU special envoy Peter Sorensen, followed by a bilateral meeting between Belgrade's delegation and Sorensen's team and, ultimately, direct discussions between Belgrade and Pristina.