Exclusive: Serbia to investigate murder of police officer in northern Kosovo, says Vucic

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia will investigate events leading up to a shooting at a monastery in northern Kosovo that Pristina has blamed on Belgrade, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday, denying any government involvement in the incident.

Kosovo police battled about 30 heavily armed Serbs who barricaded themselves inside the Serbian Orthodox monastery in the village of Banjska for hours. Three attackers and a Kosovo Albanian police officer were killed in the skirmishes.

Some 50,000 Serbs living in northern Kosovo do not recognize Pristina’s institutions and see Belgrade as their capital. They have often clashed with Kosovo police and international peacekeepers, but the weekend’s violence was the worst in years.

Vucic told Reuters that Belgrade condemned the killing of the police officer and added that Serbia would “initiate proceedings before the appropriate judicial bodies” and investigate the suspects.

“What would be the suspected crimes, that is the question of the prosecutor,” he said in his office in Belgrade.

He accused Kosovo police of shooting one of the gunmen in the head “from a distance of one meter” after he had surrendered, describing it as an “execution.”

Veton Elshani, deputy regional commander for northern Kosovo, told Reuters: “This is nonsense. Our officers will never do such a thing. We gave one of the detainees first aid in the field to save his life after having suffered injuries.”

No group has come forward to claim responsibility for the attack or to explain the gunmen’s motives.

Vucic denied the accusations of the president of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani that Belgrade had incited the violence, saying Serbia would not benefit from it as it would jeopardize its position in EU-sponsored talks with Pristina.

“Why would this be beneficial for Belgrade? What would be the idea? Destroy our position that we have been building for a year? Destroy this in one day?… Serbia does not want war,” he said.

In 2012, Kosovo and Serbia committed to participate in EU-sponsored talks. The normalization of relations is key for both countries to advance on the path towards integration with the EU.

SERBIAN AUTONOMY

The shooting sparked renewed international concern about the stability of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, nearly a decade after NATO bombing drove Serbian security forces out of what was then the predominantly Albanian province of southern Kosovo. Serbia.

Vucic promised that Serbia would investigate the origin of the weapons seized after the incident by Kosovo police, who have shown a cache including assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank rocket launchers, hand grenades, land mines and drones.

He also said that Milan Radoicic, one of the high-ranking Kosovo Serb politicians who authorities in Pristina said was present during the shooting would be “summoned by the prosecutor.”

Serbia views Kosovo as its integral part and, with the backing of several countries including Russia, China and five EU veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council, refuses to recognize its independence.

Belgrade funds schools, public health systems and most other institutions in parts of Kosovo where Serbs make up a majority.

Vucic accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of wanting to expel Serbs from Kosovo and delaying a compromise solution needed to repair ties between Belgrade and Pristina.

“The cause of all the problems in Kosovo is Albin Kurti. He is the one who caused all this,” he said.

He said Kurti’s refusal to form an Association of Serb Municipalities – a body that, under the provisions of a 2013 agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, would ensure Kosovo Serbs more autonomy – had fueled tensions that led to violence in Banjska.

Kurti has repeatedly said that such a partnership would allow Serbian-majority regions to break away and join Serbia.

“For us the situation (in Kosovo) is clearly terrible, but… we have to be with our people… (and) try to preserve peace,” Vucic said. “The solution is always (in) dialogue.”

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