Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on Sunday accused the EU's rule of law mission in Kosovo (EULEX) of not conducting appropriate monitoring of the activities of the Kosovo police towards local Serbs and not helping de-escalate tensions in the north of Kosovo, for which he holds Kosovo PM Albin Kurti responsible. Pročitaj više

Vucic said in a public address that Western countries were waging a hybrid war, primarily against Serbs in the north of Kosovo, who, he said, are criminalised and suspected of the gravest crimes without indictments.

He enumerated a number of incidents – from the arrests and wounding of demonstrators who clashed with the Kosovo police and KFOR international peacekeepers when 30 peacekeepers and more than 50 demonstrators were injured, to an incident on Saturday, when the Kosovo police stopped and beat up two Serb teenagers driving a quad.

“Shame on you, you liars, you are not monitoring anything. The only thing you monitor is the expulsion of Serbs from the north of Kosovo,” he said, describing EULEX’s monitoring activities as fake, their purpose being to “protect Kosovo’s statehood.”

As for a recent arrest of three Kosovo police officers, who Belgrade claims were arrested in central Serbia while Pristina claims they were kidnapped in Kosovo’s territory, Vucic said that Serbia had offered EULEX to do a polygraph test, using its experts and equipment, on the members of Serb security forces who made the arrests.

“Do it, determine where they were arrested and inform the international public accordingly,” he said, adding that EULEX officials were not interested in it and had not responded to the offer.

He warned “all those who want Serbs to be removed from the north of Kosovo” that that “will not happen.”

Asked if he would respond to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s invitation to an emergency crisis meeting with Kosovo PM Kurti next week in Brussels, Vucic said it made no sense to talk to a person who never wanted to talk and only tried to cause incidents and war.

Following the arrest of the three Kosovo policemen, Borrell invited Kurti and Vucic to a crisis meeting in Brussels, noting that the purpose of the meeting was to establish what happened and what caused the arrests.

There will be no real talks until the arrested Serbs are released and the “false mayors” in four northern Kosovo towns, elected at illegitimate elections with a 3.4% turnout, withdraw and until all members of Kosovo special police forces withdraw from northern Kosovo, Vucic said.

The Kosovo government also has the obligation to withdraw a decision to ban the entry of Serbian goods, he said, noting that this violated European principles on the free movement of goods and the Central European Free Trade Agreement.

Once all of that is done, it will make sense to hold talks, Vucic said.