Vucic talks about elections in Kosovo and Metohija: We won't recognize Kosovo under any circumstances

President Aleksandar Vucic addresses citizens of Serbia after a several-hours-long meeting of the Council for National Security, as well as a meeting with representatives of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija and a special meeting with the Quint ambassadors.

The last in a series of meetings last evening was the conversation between the president of Serbia and the Russian ambassador, Aleksandr Botsan Kharchenko, and a meeting with the charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy. Prior to that, Vucic had an emergency two-hour meeting with the Quint ambassadors, to which he arrived from the session of the Council for National Security, which lasted for three hours.

"Namely, we discussed all the political and economic aspects of the Ukrainian crisis and the problems we are facing, in the best faith, desire and hope that we can mitigate all the consequences of the crisis. We have agreed on an additional amount of powdered milk that we have to procure, which is currently on its way from one of the EU countries, thousands of tons, and we have agreed on other important things for our country. In the second part of the meeting, we spoke about the decision of the Albanians not to allow (Serbian) elections to be held (in Kosovo and Metohija) and all the consequences of such an act. It's not just a question of whether Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija will be able to vote, and of silencing them, nor is it a matter of support, but one of security and political survival of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and their existence," Vucic explained.

The Albanians literally asked us from us a de facto recognition of Kosovo - said Vucic and listed everything that Serbia agreed to.

"We agreed to everything, and they asked for only one phrase, "the government of Serbia is asking the government of Kosovo." We accepted countless compromises and nonsense that they insisted on, but they (now) asked for only one thing, for Serbia to recognize Kosovo's independence. And nobody being in power is as important as our state is important to us, and that is why we did not agree to that," said Vucic.

Vucic also conveyed that he spoke to all representatives of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija.

"For the first time, we did not have fully agreed and harmonized activities. I asked our Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, who surprised me with their somewhat more radical proposals, for patience. I said that I would never turn my back on them, but I was asking them to count to ten, to have faith in my experience, my political nose, and the gravity of the moment we are in. They unanimously demanded (not only) to leave all (Kosovo) institutions immediately, but that 435 police officers in the North leave the regional police, and even people even from the South agreed, although they usually hold the opposite position. I understand them because of the terror they are enduring," Vucic said.

Vucic added that he asked, if this this done, "what happens the day after."

"I'm afraid they will enter a vicious circle of conflict and I asked them to be patient and that to the talks. Of course, that will mean that 15-20 percent of those who planned to go to the polls will turn out, in any case I understand the gravity of the position of our people, but I haven't understood so far that they are ready to sacrifice everything and are fed up with everything that is happening in Kosovo and Metohija, some are even ready for conflicts, and to leave. I pleaded with them to guard our Serbian homes, said that the state would be with them. But also that the state pleads with them for a little understanding and for us to be able to calculate what we should do," said Vucic.

As for the Quint, they have been informed about everything, and Vucic hopes they will clearly condemn Pristina's behavior. The ambassador of Russia and the Chinese embassy representative have already conveyed to their capitals what I told them, Vucic said.

"After all the meetings, I spoke again with the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, they agreed to hold protests in the coming days in different parts of Kosovo and Metohija. I will talk to them again these days after consultations with government representatives. Some in the region are playing a game against Serbia, and want to mark us as someone who is against the West in order to impose sanctions against us or to make us physically unable to help our people. I am not making up that there is a trap, in order to avoid making some moves, but because of what happened in 2004, Serbia can no longer allow that. We must be smart and protect our people and our country. They are literally dragging us into conflicts and their activity is not coordinated by chance. Both parts of (the authorities in) Podgorica, the whole of Pristina, a part in Zagreb and others in the region," said the president, who announced that the talks would continue.

The president ended his address by saying that Serbia must not allow even the slightest incident to occur.

Dalibor Jevtic, a Serb representative from Kosovo and Metohija, said that the current situation there and the stance of the authorities in Pristina towards Serbs is that of someone intending to provoke a reaction and put Serbia in as difficult a position as possible.

"It's true that for the first time we, as representatives of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and the authorities in Serbia, we did not agree, but we trust representatives of our government and the president of Serbia. We will fight in a democratic way and we will hold peaceful protests in Kosovo and Metohija on Friday as a form of struggle, with a clear message that we do not want anyone to deny us our basic human rights and that we do not want to be second-class citizens, and allow those in Pristina to in any way abuse what are our state interests, when it comes to international relations," Jevtic explained.

Difficult and complex talks were held with representatives of Serb institutions in Kosovo and Metohija, attended by judges of the Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica, representatives of the Serb List, presidents of all Temporary Authorities in Kosovo and Metohija, directors of healthcare institutions and commanders of investigative departments, the director of the Regional Police Directorate, head of Operations, head of the Investigation Department, head of the Intervention Unit, as well as other bodies and institutions.

Because of these difficult talks, Vucic postponed all party-related activities he had planned for yesterday.

(Telegraf.rs)