Vucic visits Kosovo after hand grenade blast near one venue

Vucic visits Kosovo after hand grenade blast near one venue

"My response to those of our Serbs who wanted to welcome me in such a way is: may God forgive you, I will fight for you and your families to enable you to live in your ancestral homes and be happy and more satisfied than you are today," Vucic said at a Serbian Progressive Party election convention in the Kosovo-Metohija municipality.

In every way possible, the state will help the Serbs who have remained in Kosovo-Metohija and are protecting Serbdom and Serbia, even though it does not have the capabilities that it had prior to 1999, Vucic said.

Bursts were fired from an automatic weapon and a grenade lobbed at the sports hall at around 3 am Sunday, shattering some of the windows on the venue and damaging a passenger vehicle parked nearby.

None of the workers who were assembling the stage for the convention were injured in the attack.

Serbia cannot and will not give up on something that is as vital to the survival of Serbs in northern Kosovo and Metohija as the Gazivode hydropower system, Aleksandar Vucic said during a tour of Lake Gazivode on Sunday.

"For us, Lake Gazivode is a major hydropower potential. For the most part, the hydro potentials and capacities are used by (ethnic) Albanians for the Obilic coal-fired power plant and for the population," he said.

Several types of agreements have been offered to the Kosovo Albanians that did not imply that Gazivode would be completely taken or snatched from "Serbian hands," Vucic said, expressing regret over the fact that Pristina has been unwilling to accept any such agreement.

"Our position is that we cannot give up on a resource that is so significant and strategic. We are always ready to supply water to the (ethnic) Albanian side - we have never had any problems with that in the past and we never will," Vucic said, adding that the system was built by Serbia and preserved by Kosovo Serbs.

Brussels is the place where property issues need to be discussed, and we have neither accepted nor will accept Pristina's ultimatums, and do not want to issue ultimatums to it, Vucic said Sunday.

Asked by reporters to comment on Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa's statement that he does not want to discuss "state property" in Kosovo-Metohija with Belgrade, Vucic said that Serbia wants discussions and that results of discussions are always better than unilateral decisions.

Asked when the Community of Serb Municipalities will be formed, Vucic said that it is important that the Brussels Agreement - whose six out of 15 points relate to the Community - is honored.

Noting that he believes that Pristina will fulfil its obligations, Vucic said that Kosovo officials have signed the Brussels Agreement, as well as other agreements.

"I believe that the international community will also be looking to be respectful to itself because they facilitated the dialogue and we signed four new agreements in their presence on August 25," Vucic noted.

It is up to Pristina to decide when it will start honouring what it has signed, he said.

The Serbian government will not leave the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs behind, and we will not let the Trepca mines be taken away from us, Vucic said in Leposavic Sunday.

Addressing Leposavic residents and miners of the Trepca flotation plant - who welcomed him with ovations and shouts of "Trepca is Serbia" - he said that the plant is the backbone of Serb survival in northern Kosovo.

Since the beginning of the Brussels dialogue with Pristina, Belgrade has been insisting on discussing property issues, but some have been avoiding that, he said.

"The first attack on Trepca, when they wanted to present it as their own, has been repelled. We are apprehensive that they might pass a special law transforming Trepca into public property of the so-called 'Republic of Kosovo'," Vucic said.

It is known who built the flotation plant, the Crnac and Belo Brdo mines and who works there, and they cannot be taken away by anyone, he said.

"We will fight politically and oppose this unambiguously and I hope that there will be enough wisdom in Pristina and Brussels to understand this," Vucic said.

Commenting on early Sunday's grenade attack on a Zubin Potok venue where he is scheduled to speak later in the afternoon, Vucic said that he is not intimidated by the attack and that only a strong Serbia can protect the interests of the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs.

Speaking to reporters after a visit to the Banjska monastery, Vucic said that three people were involved in the incident and that, according to his information, they have not been caught as yet.

"It is not only that a grenade was thrown - from what I have learned, three 'heroes' showed up, one lobbed an M75 grenade and then fired a submachine gun burst. He could have killed who knows how many people as there were ten people there, working on setting up the stage," Vucic said.

He said that he let the authorities find out what happened, adding that he is not sure that they will ever be able to do so, but that he still trusts them.

"As far as I am concerned, I will go there, and I will go to Kosovo and Metohija every time," Vucic said, adding that the Zubin Potok event will go ahead as planned.

Earlier on, the head of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said that the incident was an organized attack and an act of terrorism.