PM accuses K. Albanians of sabotaging dialogue

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- PM Mirko Cvetković said Saturday the interim authorities in Priština caused the crisis in northern Kosovo in order to provoke Serbia to end the dialogue.

Mirko Cvetković (Beta, file)

Opening the debate at the extraordinary session of the Serbian parliament on the government-sponsored draft declaration on the situation in Kosovo, the prime minister said Belgrade will remain firm in its stance that the problems in the province can only be solved in a peaceful and democratic manner.

Cvetković said the crisis was caused by Priština's irresponsible and unilateral moves, aimed at changing the reality on the ground, upsetting the Serb population and establishing the interim Priština institutions in the northern part of the province.

"The goal of the interim authorities in Priština was to cause incidents and make Serbia's position more difficult, and in essence, to provoke Serbia to end the dialogue, which was already yielding its first results," said the prime minister.

"Through diplomatic activity, Priština's brutal attempt to impose unilateral solutions was stopped," Cvetković said.

"Our main tool in the fight for Kosovo is dialogue and our policy is not to make a single move which would endanger the survival of Serbs in the province and the stability of the region," explained the prime minister.

The prime minister said that both the international community and the interim institutions in Priština need to understand the Serbian government will never recognize Kosovo as independent and that there are no circumstances or blackmail under which it would do so.

Cvetković called on the international community to work to maintain peace in Kosovo, acting in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1244, and called for a return to the earlier state and reaffirmation of dialogue.

Cvetković urged Kosovo Serbs to prevent the actions of hooligans, who are, as he said, in the direct service of Albanian extremism.

The Serbian prime minister called on the people in Kosovo, above all ethnic Albanians, to refrain from violence, and asked the Kosovo Serbs to be united and not do favors to the extremists who want to take Kosovo away from Serbia.