Serbian Ex-Deputy PM Says Kosovo's Kurti Behind Provocation, Blasts KFOR for Inaction

After a US request on Monday, the authorities of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo postponed a ban on entry with Serbian license plates and documents for one month. The ban was supposed to come into force on August 1, and had caused an aggravation in the north of the region.

Nebojsa Covic, the former Serbian deputy prime minister and former chairman of the Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija, recently expressed that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti is not only personally responsible, but also behind everything that is happening in Kosovo at the moment.

Covic, who served as Serbia's deputy PM from 2001 to 2004, told Sputnik that Kurti was acting according to plan, devised by "'crisis teams' from certain Western countries," and that Belgrade is quite familiar with such scenarios.

"It is obvious that now the moment has been chosen when it is possible to continue to put pressure on the Serbs in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija," Covic offered. "I have been saying for a long time that everything is being done in order to arrange ethnic cleansing of the Serbs."

Speaking about the role of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeeping mission led by NATO, the expert wondered about the effectiveness of the mission, which, among other things, should ensure the security of ethnic Serbs in the region.

"But with all this, the question arises, what does KFOR do? It is simply unbelievable that it behaves so relaxedly, because [the mission's] job should be to prevent any provocations and conflicts," he noted.

As for the Serbian side, in his opinion, the country's leadership should assess the situation based on all available information from the scene of the unfolding events and beyond.

“The game has gone too far. Every three or four months we will have a 'hysteria of the insecure Albin Kurti,' and we know who is behind him and who benefits from all this,” Covic stated.

He recalled that almost ten years have passed since the signing of the 2013 Brussels Agreement on the normalization of relations, and the count of Pristina's provocations in all aspects has already been lost, if discussing the situation with Serbs and Serbian property in Kosovo and Metohija.

"Despite this, it is necessary to preserve the peace as much as possible, if at all possible. Serbs in Kosovo must be smart, resist provocations and be well organized," Covic concluded.

On March 24, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic declared that the Brussels Agreement "no longer exists," citing the Kosovo Judicial Council's suspension of Mitrovica Court President Ljiljana Stevanovic and alleged plans to remove all Serb commanders from the Kosovo police force as the main causes.