Dacic: State to do everything to preserve peace in Kosovo-Metohija

BELGRADE - Serbian First Deputy PM and FM Ivica Dacic said on Monday Serbia should beware any provocations in the wake of clashes in which three Serbs and one officer of the so-called Kosovo Police were killed in the north of Kosovo-Metohija early on Sunday.

Echoing a statement by President Aleksandar Vucic, Dacic told Prva TV Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija should remain calm and trust their state, which he said would do everything to preserve peace.

In this situation, the international community is practically stepping aside and letting a conflict happen in Kosovo-Metohija, leaving the Serbs to be hunted down by "Kosovo Albanian police," he said.

"I am saying Kosovo Albanian police because it is ethnic Albanian police, and it would be a Kosovo police if there were Serbs there," Dacic explained, adding that the essence of the Brussels Agreement was that Serb-populated regions in Kosovo-Metohija should be administered by Serbs.

All that is happening now represents a continuity of provocations by Pristina's PM Albin Kurti, Dacic said.

During the conflict between ethnic Albanian separatists and the government in North Macedonia, the entire international community was involved in efforts to defuse the conflict, while now Serbs do not even have a right to protest against the terror they are subjected to, Dacic said.

"The Serbs have the right to defend themselves and express their political will. As President Vucic has said, this is about the fact that those whose have blood on their hands and were involved in and supported the aggression on Serbia in 1999 now continue that policy and are laying the political and media foundations for supporting Kurti's regime," Dacic said.

He added that Serbia was in favour of continued dialogue and respect of principles agreed ten years ago and that Kfor should be the only armed formation in the province.