Official: Belgrade to Conduct Investigation into Recent Developments in Kosovo

Milovan Drecun (Photo: Beta/Nenad Petrovic)

The chairman of the Serbian Parliament’s Committee on Kosovo and Metohija, Milovan Drecun, said on Oct. 4 that the only thing the authorities in Belgrade could do in the aftermath of a gun battle between a group of Serbs and the Kosovo Police in the northern Kosovo village of Banjska, was “a very quick investigation” into what happened.

Drecun said in an interview with the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS) that Belgrade “must fend off all the attempts by Pristina and the political West to connect the Serbian state with that armed group, preparations behind it, its training and weapons and infiltration into the north of Kosovo.” “If it fails to do so, Belgrade will be exposed to some of the measures many in the political West have already requested,” Drecun said.

According to the Serbian parliamentarian, Serbia had already reduced army presence along the administrative line between Kosovo and Serbia and the deployment of Serbian troops had been stopped, whereas an investigation had been launched into the events and a former vice-president of the Serbian Ticket party, Milan Radoicic, suspected of having been the mastermind behind the group involved in the Banjska attack, had been arrested.

In a comment on Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani’s words that in the coming days she would “release evidence that the Banjska attack had been ordered by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic,” Drecun said that Pristina had been planning to “fabricate alleged evidence,” using Radoicic to “reach Vucic, and eliminate the Serb Ticket party.”