Kosovo - Security Council, 10250th meeting

🇷🇸 Serbia

1. 🇷🇸 SerbiaFirst reply▶ 2:25:52 · 5 min

   Esteemed Mr. Presiding, distinguished members of the Council, we spent most time today talking about the past, some time talking about the present. And very little time talking about the future. This in itself should concern us all. We were accused by the representative of Kurti's government for a number of things which I do not want to leave unanswered. Firstly, the lack of objectivity. The representative of Pristina said, I didn't mention Albanian victims. This unfortunately is not true. I did mention both Serbian and Albanian victims a number of times, clearly stating That we do not seek Serbian justice, we do not seek Albanian justice for the victims, but objective justice. While falsely claiming I was ignoring Albanian victims, representative of Pristina accused Serbia of fabricating war crimes against the Serbs. That is, ladies and gentlemen, an insult, no less than an insult to the victims, both Serb and Albanian, and undermining international justice in the middle of the UN Security Council chamber. We also heard something that cannot be described in any other way than a political obsession of the Kurti regime with Mr. Aleksandr Vucic and even his family members. That is no less than a clear endorsement of one side in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Serbia. It also clarifies very evidently the reason for denying Serbs in Kosovo their voting rights in the upcoming elections. Kurti knows that an overwhelming majority of them support Mr. Vucic. That is the real reason why he doesn't want them to vote. The representative of Pristina has also made reference to a number of Serbian officials and individuals. I believe that Mr. Ivica Dacic, as someone who was born in prison, has every right to speak about displaying his national flag in the city in which he was born. What is much more concerning to me. Is that more than a quarter of a century later, none of more than 20,000 Serbs from prison have returned. And we all remember that in 2004, UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Serbian Church, the Holy Mother of Levis, was burned to the ground. I also want to remind everyone present that in the Bainska incident, it was three local Serbs who also lost their lives in ways that have not been properly investigated, as well as the Kosovo police officer, which is both deeply regrettable. Guilt in this case has, however, been attributed in advance to the Serbian side without any realistic chance of due process. There was not a single request, in contrast, for accountability for the shooting of a child, Stefan Stojanovich, in 2023. A Serbian child who was on Christmas Eve of 2023 shot by an active member of the Kosovo security forces, and still no accountability for this until this very day. Finally, nothing exposes the current administration in Pristina more than the brazen attack on the UN itself. Pristina accused the UN of lack of due diligence. When UN independent monitors registered 192 ethnically motivated incidents, arbitrary arrests, and attacks on the Serbian church, Pristina's answer is to condemn and demean victims by calling these abuses micro incidents and to shoot the UN messenger. Furthermore, Pristina openly admits today that Serbs were forcibly removed by police during religious and historical commemorations. Treating peaceful worshippers and mourners as criminals is the exact reason why unmixed mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and international security and political presence in Kosovo and Metokia remain indispensable. I thank you.

   Read in full

Verbatim from the transcript. A reply is identified from its own words, the Chair's grant, or its place in the right-of-reply sequence; delegations and addressees follow the transcript's attribution.