Defense Minister: Current Communication with KFOR at the Lowest Level, Merely Technical

Milos Vucevic (Photo: Beta/Milos Miskov)

Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said in a Sept. 27 comment on an armed conflict in the north of Kosovo on Sept. 24, when a Kosovo police officer and four Serbs were killed, that communication between the Serbian authorities and the Kosovo Force (KFOR) was “at the lowest, merely technical level” regarding the matter.

“We communicate with the KFOR, obviously, we cannot suspend cooperation, but the level at which we communicate has been degraded to the elementary, technical standard,” Vucevic said in an interview with the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS). As to the armed conflict near the Banjska monastery the minister said that “what’s to be done next is to establish precisely what happened.”

“What we have heard so far suggests that Serbia had initiated or sponsored some terrorist acts,” Vucevic said, denying the allegations and adding that the greatest concern was the position of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, especially in the north of Kosovo, which Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti “declared a zone of terrorist activity.”

The Serbian defense minister said that “the key issue is who allowed the mono-ethnic Albanian police to be deployed in the north of Kosovo, contrary to the Brussels agreement.” “Serbia has condemned the murder of the Albanian police officer; we don’t want any clashes at all. What happened after was absolute horror, as the Serbs were hunted down like animals,” Vucevic said.