Vučić addresses UN Security Council: Widespread attacks directed against Serbs VIDEO

Vučić addresses UN Security Council: Widespread attacks directed against Serbs VIDEO

The session is being held at the request of Serbia, which requested it on Monday due to the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, and the request states, among other things, that the current situation is in sharp contrast to the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 1244. President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, thanked for the quick convening of the UN Security Council session and pointed out that the persecution and difficult life of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the entire situation, is absolutely contrary to the UN Charter and the Security Council resolution.

"In the past months, the Provisional institutions of Self-Government in Pristina have created unbearable living conditions of Serbs and are now carrying out widespread systematic attacks on Serbian civilians and their persecution. Such a situation, if there is no adequate reaction, can cause irreparable harm to the survival of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija", Vučić said at the beginning of his speech

"Serbia requested the holding of an extraordinary session of the Security Council because Pristina's activities are of such a nature that they can cause irreparable harm to the Serbian people, and the immediate reason is the move by the Central Bank of Kosovo to ban the circulation of dinars, which is the culmination of attacks on the Serbian and non-Albanian population because a huge number of inhabitants on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija directly or indirectly depends on dinar income from the Serbian budget and thus they are deprived of the basic means of living," explained Vučić.

"The data that the Republic of Serbia pays 60,946 salaries and pensions in Kosovo and Metohija, 2,430 scholarships for students and finances soup kitchens that meet the basic needs of around 2,000 socially most vulnerable citizens from this budget, clearly show that this measure is primarily an attack on the Serbian population and that makes the situation in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija difficult. Only these figures clearly show that a huge number of inhabitants in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija directly or indirectly depend on dinar income from the budget of the Republic of Serbia. As a result, it is obvious that the ban on dinar payments, i.e. the abolition of the dinar as means of payment, directly deprives a huge number of residents of basic personal means of living," said Vučić.

He also pointed out that 1,794 Serbian and non-Albanian farms on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija directly depend on dinar subsidies from the Republic of Serbia, while the survival of 922 economic entities owned by Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, which are directly dependent on dinar payments, is no longer operationally sustainable.

"To sum it up, the decision to ban dinar payments means that Pristina directly prevents the functioning of all social, health, educational, social, cultural and other institutions that enable Serbs to provide themselves and their families with basic necessities of life, education, treatment, shopping drugs and do all the other things that today are considered normal life with a minimum of human dignity," he said.

According to him, those institutions represent the basis for the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities, whose competences and structure are clearly defined by the agreement on municipal principles signed in 2015, which precisely defines that Serbia has the right to finance the CSM," said Vučić.

​

Пошаљи повратне информације

Vučić highlighted the systematic attacks on the Serbian population

"Since Kurti's coming to power in 2021, a total of 669 ethnically motivated attacks have been registered in Kosovo and Metohija, which is an increase of 300 percent. Kurti directs the persecution of Serbs, among the incidents are dramatic cases of police beatings and mistreatment of Serbs, and the brutal shooting of Dragisa Galjak and four more Serbs," Vučić reiterated.

"The Pristina regime, which is responsible for the creatin of unbearable living conditions and persecution of Serbs, now claims that it made the decision to abolish the dinar in order to enforce the rule of law, and it is undeniable that the euro was introduced in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija in an illegal manner, and the dinar is a legal means of payment in the Republic of Serbia and cannot be banned in Kosovo and Metohija as part of the territory of Serbia," said Vučić.

"Although the international community has labeled Pristina as the sole culprit for the escalation of the situation, Pristina has essentially not faced the serious consequences of its actions, and the terror against the Serbian population is intensifying, which includes physical attacks on Serbs, and none of the Pristina armed formations has been subjected to prosecution for this violence," Vučić pointed out.

"Any prevention of funding of Serbian schools, kindergartens, faculties, hospitals, as well as clinics and health homes represents a direct blow to both the survival of Serbs and the formation of the CSM," said Vučić.

He emphasized that it is obvious that the creation of unbearable living conditions and the denial of the possibility of survival of the Serbs is the only goal of the regime in Pristina, which, through an act of structural violence, is intensifying a multi-year well-planned and systematic attack on the Serbian population "basically started the open persecution of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija".

He pointed out that in this sense, he will factually debunk the complete groundlessness of the arguments of the regime in Pristina, which claims that it took the measure of abolishing the dinar and introducing the euro as the only means of payment solely for the purpose of ensuring the alleged rule of law. "Please keep in mind that the so-called leadership of the Kosovo Albanians uses the term rule of law in order to exclusively harm the Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

It is a practice so widespread that the provisional institutions of self-government have been publicly and openly refusing to carry out the legally binding and final decision for eight years, the decision of its own supreme court on the return of the land owned by the Serbian Orthodox monastery Visoki Dečani", said the President of Serbia.

He points out that he believes, if we bear in mind that such is Pristina's attitude towards the application of the rule of law in the case of a world cultural heritage site under UNESCO protection, which is under 24/7 security by Kfor and surrounded by purely Albanian settlements, and which is inhabited by a larger community of monks of the Serbian Orthodox Church, that it is clear what conditions the regime in Pristina is subjecting the ordinary Serbian population to, which is also subject to the declarative protection of Pristina's supposed rule of law.

He emphasized that in the context of such Pristina's so-called rule of law, Serbs are subject to the rule of law and that an illustrative example is that recently the so-called Kosovo judiciary, which is mass-persecuting Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and potential Serb returnees under false accusations of war and other crimes, simply decided that a member of the illegal so-called Kosovo security forces, Azem Kurtaj, who shot the Serbian child Stefan Stojanović, 11 years old, and his cousin Milaš, 21 years old, on Christmas Eve 2023 with an official firearm, now is a free man and defends himself pending trial.

"However, he does not defend himself against accusations of an obvious attempt of murdering a child, but of an act equivalent to causing a general danger, like when someone throws firecrackers on New Year's Eve, for example. In this sense, one must not lose sight of the fact that this is only one of even 470 unpunished ethnically motivated attacks on Serbs, the Serbian Orthodox Church and their property in 2021, since the head of the so-called Kosovo Albanian leadership, Albin Kurti, who now leads the persecution of Serbs. Among those incidents that started in 2021 are dramatic cases of countless police beatings and mistreatment of Serbs, and even the brutal and unprovoked shooting of Dragisa Galjak and four other Serbs. Why did Pristina regime not consider it worthwhile to even formally conduct investigations? For the sake of comparison, during the entire nine years, before Kurti's coming to power in 2021, a total of 669 such ethnically motivated attacks were registered in Kosovo and Metohija, which is an increase of 300 percent," said Vučić.

He points out that Pristina regime creates unbearable living conditions and outlaws Serbs and persecutes them.

"Now they claim that the decision to abolish the legal means of payment, the dinar, was made in order to implement the rule of law. Although this factual contradiction reveals that it is not about any formal rule of law, but only about the mechanism of completing the creation of unbearable living conditions for Serbs and their persecution," said Vučić.

Vučić called for the return of Serbian military personnel to Kosovo

Vučić said that Serbia, on its part, will implement all agreements and take all necessary measures in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

At the same time, he called on the Security Council not to lose sight of the fact that Serbia sent a request to KFOR, in accordance with resolution 1244 and the military-technical agreement from Kumanovo, to enable the return of the agreed number of Serbian security personnel, who would help international forces in protecting the Serbian population. "Even though it is an international legal document and it clearly imposes an obligation on the KFOR commander to enable such a return, that did not happen," said Vučić.

He said that the Kosovo Albanians undertake systematic attacks on the Serbian population and deliberately create unbearable living conditions, persecute the Serbs and prevent the physical survival of the Serbian population on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija.

"It seems necessary to point out Serbia's policy, which is based on the United Nations Charter and, when it comes to the situation on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, strict compliance with Security Council resolutions. We oppose all factors of instability and strive to be a solid pillar of stability in the Western Balkans region. For years, Serbia has been attracting record amounts of direct foreign investment, greater than the rest of the countries of the region combined. We will also host the Expo with the picturesque name 'leap into the future.'

"I don't believe that it is in anyone's interest that in a world where too many hot spots have already been opened, the Balkans will again become a zone of instability due to the blind and senseless hatred of the Pristina regime towards the Serbs living in Kosovo and Metohija," said Vučić.

He expressed hope that after today's session, even those members of the United Nations Security Council who recognized the illegal unilaterally declared independence of the southern Serbian province will understand that Pristina's latest moves are not just an attempt to consolidate something that a significant majority of United Nations members, including Serbia, do not recognize as the state, but lead to endangerment and breach of peace.

"Pristina's attempt to implement the abolition of the dinar payment transaction and remove the dinar as a means of payment is nothing more than another widespread and systematic attack on the Serbian population, a crime against humanity," said Vučić.

At the same time, he thanked officials from the United States of America and the European Union and all traditional friends from the East for reacting to Pristina's latest moves with condemnations in their statements.

"The recent theft in Pristina of money intended for pensions and social benefits for Serbs, as well as the arrest and criminal prosecution of people who transferred that money in a completely transparent and legal manner, as in all years during the past quarter of a century, irrefutably proves that announcements are clearly not enough a means of persuading Pristina to immediately end the persecution of the Serbs and turn away from attempts to destabilize the region.

I'm not even sure that the request of certain international actors to postpone the implementation of the regulation is the right way, because in this way Pristina is actually indirectly emboldening itself to continue making unilateral decisions with the technical-procedural condition that it only needs to be more careful in choosing the moment and the way of implementing and applying those unilateral moves", he said.

He emphasized that the solution to the crisis, as well as to all other crises that Pristina has produced in the past period, can only be a clear order to immediately stop all the mentioned measures that deliberately create unbearable living conditions and carry out the persecution of Serbs, as well as decisive discouragement of Pristina to reach for any unilateral moves related to the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija in the future.

Address by Caroline Ziadeh

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission, Caroline Ziadeh, recalled the agreements from Brussels and Ohrid, and then referred to the events in Kosovo and Metohija, which led to escalation, such as the elections in four municipalities in the north of Kosovo and Metohija.

She also spoke about Pristina's latest measure, which concerns the abolition of the dinar in Kosovo and Metohija, and added that this measure affected the Serbian people who received money from Serbia, but the economy, as well. She added that four million dinars were confiscated in Pec, and that the money was returned from Jarinje to Serbia.

"Despite some justifications, the actions must be taken into account because they affect the population. The (so-called) Kosovo police conducted an operation in Serbian premises. The personnel were taken for questioning and released later. In Pec, a team of journalists from Radio Goraždevac were stopped, then searched even though they showed identification cards. It is extremely important to allow the media freedom. These measures of Pristina did not lead to de-escalation," Ziadeh said.