Vucic: We will request urgent UNSC session

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday Serbia would request that an urgent UN Security Council session be called over threats to the lives and safety of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

"Things have got out of control, the Serbs have their backs against the wall and that is why I will request an urgent discussion with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg anywhere on planet Earth to have the final discussions and point to the situation, and to tell them what we can do and what we cannot do any more," Vucic said in a public address.

After that discussion, Serbia will request an urgent UNSC session over developments in Kosovo-Metohija for the first time, he said, adding that Serbia wanted to act in line with UNSCR 1244 and the norms of international law.

"We have not requested a session before because we knew it is the last thing we must request before undertaking certain activities that are difficult, but we have no right to allow a further pogrom, expulsion and ethnic cleansing of our population," Vucic said.

He said he would request at the session that the UNSC take urgent measures to protect the lives and the freedom of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

"That means we will request that the UNSC order the international security force Kfor to fulfill the obligations mandated by Articles 15 and 9 of UNSCR 1244, as well as by Articles 3 and 4 of the annex to that Resolution," he said.

Firstly, they must immediately stop any further actions on the ground by Pristina's security structures and other structures that jeopardise the lives, freedom, safety and survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, he said.

"Secondly, they must conduct a demilitarisation of all armed ethnic Albanian formations in line with UNSCR 1244," Vucic said, adding that, depending on the response, there could also be a third point.

The UNSC will provide an answer to the question of who has the duty to protect the lives and the freedom of the Serbs - Kfor or someone else, Vucic said.