"Albanian arsonists need to be pacified"

Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic commented on ideas of the so-called Greater Albania in an interview for a Belgrade daily. Should someone truly try to implement Koca Danaj's platform or similar ideas of greater Albania, the consequences would be hard to predict and would have enormous impact on the security and peace in the region as a whole, he told Vecernje Novosti. "Albanian arsonists need to be pacified" "It is about time the international community responded seriously and firmly, silenced the propagators of such ideas and take the matches from the hands of arsonists who want to set the entire region on fire again," Bogdanovic was quoted as saying. He was reacting to the "platform on natural Albania" – where Danaj urges for a solution to the Albanian issue in the Balkans by the year 2013, that would see the setting up a new Albanian state with more territory. According to Danaj, this new state would include, besides Albania and Kosovo, more parts Serbia, but also Macedonia, Greece and Montenegro, where ethnic Albanians live, and who would decide about this in a referendum. Noting that this idea "is not new to us", Bogdanovic said that a part of the international community had ignored such statements, while the whole of the international community "responded fiercely to some alleged plans for a Great Serbia". The minister said that what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in his new report to the UN "largely corresponds with our stands – that problems need to be solved in a peaceful way, with cooperation of all sides". Bogdanovic also repeated that Serbia on numerous occasions warned that accelerated withdrawal of KFOR was unacceptable, "since all international factors appraise the current situation in Kosovo and Metohija as calm on the surface and very fragile". "The withdrawal of KFOR brings with it fears and poses the question of how Strpce, as the most distant Serb enclave, will survive in case of new unrest. We all know how (Kosovo police) KPS behaved in 2004 (during the March pogrom), so this issue comes down to this: can we trust the wolf to guard the sheep?," Bogdanovic wondered, and concluded: "We cannot." "Since 1999, the Kosovo society has been based on violence, and functions solely on the principle of conflict," he stated, noting that "someone obviously wants to prove at any cost that the security situation for Serbs in Kosovo has changed for the better". "They allow themselves to conduct dangerous experiments, playing with the lives and destinies of thousands of people," the minister warned. As for the municipal elections scheduled for May 30 in Kosovska Mitrovica, Bogdanovic said that Pristina and EU special envoy in Kosovo Pieter Feith have been imposing a context to the forthcoming voting that would allow them to make use of the confusion. But, the minister concluded, "for Kosovo's Serbs there is no dilemma which elections are only relevant. Their only state is Serbia." Goran Bogdanovic (Tanjug, file)

"Albanian arsonists need to be pacified"

"It is about time the international community responded seriously and firmly, silenced the propagators of such ideas and take the matches from the hands of arsonists who want to set the entire region on fire again," Bogdanović was quoted as saying.

He was reacting to the "platform on natural Albania" – where Danaj urges for a solution to the Albanian issue in the Balkans by the year 2013, that would see the setting up a new Albanian state with more territory.

According to Danaj, this new state would include, besides Albania and Kosovo, more parts Serbia, but also Macedonia, Greece and Montenegro, where ethnic Albanians live, and who would decide about this in a referendum.

Noting that this idea "is not new to us", Bogdanović said that a part of the international community had ignored such statements, while the whole of the international community "responded fiercely to some alleged plans for a Great Serbia".

The minister said that what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in his new report to the UN "largely corresponds with our stands – that problems need to be solved in a peaceful way, with cooperation of all sides".

Bogdanović also repeated that Serbia on numerous occasions warned that accelerated withdrawal of KFOR was unacceptable, "since all international factors appraise the current situation in Kosovo and Metohija as calm on the surface and very fragile".

"The withdrawal of KFOR brings with it fears and poses the question of how Štrpce, as the most distant Serb enclave, will survive in case of new unrest. We all know how (Kosovo police) KPS behaved in 2004 (during the March pogrom), so this issue comes down to this: can we trust the wolf to guard the sheep?," Bogdanović wondered, and concluded: "We cannot."

"Since 1999, the Kosovo society has been based on violence, and functions solely on the principle of conflict," he stated, noting that "someone obviously wants to prove at any cost that the security situation for Serbs in Kosovo has changed for the better".

"They allow themselves to conduct dangerous experiments, playing with the lives and destinies of thousands of people," the minister warned.

As for the municipal elections scheduled for May 30 in Kosovska Mitrovica, Bogdanović said that Priština and EU special envoy in Kosovo Pieter Feith have been imposing a context to the forthcoming voting that would allow them to make use of the confusion.

But, the minister concluded, "for Kosovo's Serbs there is no dilemma which elections are only relevant. Their only state is Serbia."