GORAZDEVAC, Aug 15 (Hina) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic called on Serbs on Friday to muster up strength and stay in Kosovo, pledging that he would make it possible for their stay to be viable.
GORAZDEVAC, Aug 15 (Hina) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic
called on Serbs on Friday to muster up strength and stay in Kosovo,
pledging that he would make it possible for their stay to be viable.
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He spoke in Gorazdevac near Pec, where he attended the funeral of
two Serb youths killed by as yet unknown gunmen on Wednesday. Also
present was Nebojsa Covic, Serbia's deputy PM and chief of a
coordinating centre for Kosovo, as well as more than 1,000
residents of Gorazdevac.
Zivkovic's and Covic's attendance was the first visit by top
Belgrade officials to Kosovo since the war in the province ended
four years ago.
Addressing Kosovo's Serbs, Zivkovic said Serbia and the union of
Serbia and Montenegro would do everything to improve their status,
but added that achieving this would require the help of "big and
strong allies".
He dismissed, however, rumours that Serbia's police and army might
return to Kosovo, saying such demands were not conducive to peace.
The Serbian PM slammed international peacekeepers for having
failed to even begin doing what their job in Kosovo was. He pointed
to the presence of illegal weaponry, as evidenced by the recent as
well as prior murders, and to the existence of armed paramilitary
troops.
Zivkovic said that despite vows that all would be enabled to return
to pre-war homes, less than two percent of displaced Serbs had
returned to Kosovo in the last four years.
Zivkovic called on the international community to make the two
youths killed this week be the last victims in Kosovo, and demanded
of ethnic Albanians who wish to build a democratic society to show
responsibility for Kosovo's Serbs.
Serbia's government is responsible for Albanians living in
Presevo, Belgrade and Krusevac, and Kosovo authorities should
guarantee the security of Serbs living in Kosovo, he said.
Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova today sent a telegram extending his
condolences to the Jovovics and the Dakics, the families of
Wednesday's victims, stating that Kosovo institutions would do
everything in their power to shed light on this crime and bring the
culprits to justice.
(hina) ha