Drecun: Instead of putting pressure on Kurti, international community is encouraging him

BELGRADE - The chairman of Serbia's parliamentary committee on defence and interior affairs Milovan Drecun said on Thursday the Western part of the international community was failing to put Pristina under political pressure over its so-called laws on foreigners and vehicles, due to enter into force on March 15.

Instead of being pressured into giving up on the discriminatory and extremely anti-Serb legislation, Pristina's PM Albin Kurti is being encouraged to enforce it, Drecun told Tanjug.

"When EU officials say every state has the right to know who is in its territory, they encourage Kurti to say 'I want to know who is in my territory and everyone must have the documents that I order them to have,'" Drecun said.

"When (EU Enlargement Commissioner) Marta Kos plans to come to Pristina to bring to Kurti the good news that all protocols have been implemented and that punitive measures introduced due to an escalation in the north (of Kosovo-Metohija) would be lifted, that encourages Kurti to continue to enforce the laws," he added.

There are not many ways in which Belgrade can influence Pristina's actions, and it is already doing what can be done, engaging in international activities aimed at the EU, the US, the UN and the OSCE - those who could pressure Pristina into giving up on, or postponing, the enforcement of the laws, Drecun said.

Discussing these issues with Pristina within the EU-facilitated dialogue has become pointless as Pristina is refusing to discuss any problems that have to do with the position and survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, under the excuse that this is its internal affair, Drecun said.

In spite of talk that the enforcement of the laws might be postponed, Kurti is "encouraged" by his political victory in last December's elections and will continue to pursue his goal of full integration of the Serbs and the north of Kosovo-Metohija, which means that the Serbs would give up on their own national identity, alphabet and language, and accept that they are citizens of the so-called Kosovo, he said.

"That is no integration, but an attempt to assimilate the Serbs, otherwise they will be expelled them from the territory of Kosovo-Metohija," Drecun noted.