Djuric attends Washington conference on fight against political terrorism

WASHINGTON - Serbian FM Marko Djuric is attending a Washington ministerial conference on the fight against political terrorism.

Speaking to reporters, Djuric said the conference was aimed at establishing international dialogue and cooperation in that fight, and at not only identifying, but punishing the organisers and financiers of such political violence.

He noted that Serbia had something to say on the topic, and that the conference was the right place to address political violence against Serbs in the region, as well as political violence that had been going on in Serbia over the past year.

"We will also speak about the political violence targeting Serbs in the region just because they are Serbs, because they are Christians, and targeting their schools, churches and institutions. That is not naive violence, it is politically motivated and very systematic and methodical. This is the place to speak about that violence and about cooperation to prevent such violence," he said.

"We will not air out the dirty laundry in front of the world, but activities by extremist organisations such as Antifa, such as Bloody Fists, organisations that attack the parliament - the Assembly of Serbia - that attack public institutions, courts and provoke violence and riots in the streets and carry out political violence that, according to assessments by the judicial authorities, sometimes crosses the boundaries of terrorism," Djuric added.

He said US State Secretary Marco Rubio and a series of other officials from the Donald Trump administration had spoken at the conference.

"Serbia is proudly attending this summit because, when it comes to the fight against political violence, we have something to say. First of all, Serbia strongly condemns the cowardly terrorist attacks against President Trump's life and the assassination attempts that happened last year. We strongly condemn the assassination of Charlie Kirk," Djuric noted.