Vucic Says Cannot Extradite Radoicic to Pristina Because Serbia Does Not Recognize Kosovo

Aleksandar Vucic (Photo: Beta/Milos Miskov)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said that he cannot extradite former Serb List vice-president Milan Radoicic to Pristina because Serbia does not recognize Kosovo.

"He was a close ally, but not a friend," the Serbian president told Sky News on Oct. 7, the KoSSev website reported. Asked about claims by Pristina that Belgrade masterminded the recent events in the village of Banjska and furnished the group of Serbs that participated in them with weapons as well as photographs released by Kosovo police showing a large cache of confiscated weapons produced by Serbia, the president said it was always easier to blame Belgrade.

He replied positively when asked if Radoicic was a close ally, but said he could not call him a friend. "He has been charged. It was a major, huge felony," Vucic stressed.

Speaking about the group of Serbs who clashed with Kosovo police in Banjska, Vucic said "most of them were expelled from their hearths." Asked if he sympathized with them, Vucic said he did not and that he condemned the killing of a police office regardless of what may be happening in northern Kosovo.