Djuric receives CoE's Babity

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric received the head of the Council of Europe (CoE) Office in Belgrade Janos Babity on Monday, noting that an attempt by the Pristina regime to join the CoE was a pressing issue for Serbia and that even considering the membership application irrespective of all principles of international public law was something Serbia was strongly against.

"The situation in Kosovo-Metohija is alarming - there, Serbs, who live in fear, face a struggle for bare survival day after day and month after month, a struggle against extermination amid unbearable conditions in which not only their security but also their fundamental and civil rights are endangered," a statement from the Serbian MFA quoted Djuric as saying.

Appealing for protection of the rights and freedoms of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, Djuric added that the fact that more than 14 per cent of the remaining Serb population had left the province in the past year alone further testified of the worrying situation in the territory.

He underscored that potential CoE admission for Pristina would violate not only UNSCR 1244 and the CoE Statute but also the UN Charter, and would, as such, become a dangerous precedent with very certain negative consequences globally.