Kosovo PM accuses Belgrade of violence
KOSOVO — Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti says Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic planned and ordered an attack in northern Kosovo “to destabilise” the country with the goal of starting a war.
About 30 heavily armed Serbs stormed the village of Banjska last Sunday, fought Kosovo police in a gun battle, and barricaded themselves into a Serbian Orthodox monastery. A Kosovo policeman and three Serb attackers were killed.
Hours later, police retook the monastery where they found a large cache of weapons and ammunition. Six wounded members of the armed group were hospitalised in southern Serbia, according to Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla, while other attackers fled.
Kurti told Al Jazeera that Serb “paramilitary formations” in Banjska had equipment manufactured in Serbia that cannot be found on the open market.
While information is still being gathered by prosecutors and Kosovo police, “what we know is that we’ve confiscated five million euros [$5.3m] worth of ammunition and weapons and it was all manufactured in factories in Serbia,” Kurti alleged.
“Hand grenades, machine guns, everything that we confiscated was produced in Serbia and cannot be found on the market. It’s obvious the army of Serbia gave this to the paramilitary formations.”
Kurti said the ultimate goal of Sunday’s attack was for Serbia to stage a scenario and raise tensions.
“They wanted our police to enter the Banjska monastery so they could then share photos worldwide [showing] bullets on the monastery’s walls. That didn’t happen because our police are very strong and very professional and [the attackers] escaped.”
“They only wanted the start of a war to be on Sunday, September 24. [It’s well known] how the war started in Sarajevo. On March 1, 1992, during a wedding, an Orthodox Serb priest was injured. We were very careful that something similar doesn’t happen. But I think they wanted to repeat the scenarios from the beginning of the war [in former republics of Yugoslavia].”
Kurti said Milan Radoicic, a top Kosovo Serb politician who admitted on Friday that he planned the attack, “received logistical, military equipment and preparation from Belgrade, and also received political orders from President Vucic”, noting their close ties.
Vucic and his office has denied any government involvement in Sunday’s attack.
On Thursday, he told the Reuters news agency that Serbia will investigate the origin of the seized weapons including a cache of assault rifles, anti-tank rocket launchers, hand grenades, land mines and drones.
“Why this would be beneficial for Belgrade? What would be the idea? To destroy our position we have been building for a year? To destroy this in a day… Serbia does not want war,” Vucic said.
He said suspects will be investigated and Radoicic would be “summoned by the prosecutor”.
In turn, Vucic accused Kurti of wanting to expel Serbs from Kosovo.
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Call with Prime Minister Kurti of Kosovo
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan spoke on the phone today with Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti. Mr. Sullivan conveyed condolences for the loss of the Kosovo police officer slain in the line of duty during the violent attacks that took place on September 24. He also expressed concern about Serbian military mobilizations near the Kosovo border. He noted recent decisions by NATO to bolster the NATO Kosovo Force’s (KFOR) presence and activity, especially in northern Kosovo, and underscored the readiness of the United States to work with our Allies to ensure KFOR remained appropriately resourced to fulfill its mission. In addition, Mr. Sullivan and Prime Minister Kurti discussed the EU-facilitated Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, which Mr. Sullivan underscored was the only long-term solution to ensuring stability throughout Kosovo.
