Serb minister dismissed from Pristina government

Serb minister dismissed from Pristina government

Jablanovic added that the Serb (Srpska) List would "in the coming days" announce its position on Mustafa's decision, and on continued participation in the government in Pristina.

"All options are open. The Serb (List) represents a serious political force and will not make decisions overnight or under anyone's pressure. In the next two to three days we will reach our position and discuss it with prime minister and leader of the LDK Isa Mustafa and his deputy and leader of the PDK Hashim Thaci, face to face, like serious people do," he said, adding that he believed Mustafa made the wrong decision.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mustafa announced that Jablanovic was "no longer a part of the government of Kosovo."

The opposition demanded his dismissal after he called those ethnic Albanians who attacked Serb IDPs in Djakovica with stones on Christmas Eve "savages."

Jablanovic apologized multiple times for the statements, the Beta agency reported, and that he referred to those who stoned the IDP's bus in order to prevent them from visiting their town and take part in Christmas ceremonies, and not a group known as "the mothers of Djakovica" whose family members were killed or went missing during the war in the late 1990s.

His resignation was one of the demands during violent demonstrations in Pristina organized by the Self-Determination Movement.

The party said on Tuesday that a new protest they announced for this week was "postponed indefinitely," after the dismissal of Jablanovic - while the public would be "informed in a timely manner" about any future protests over the Trepca mining company.

In a statement for Tanjug, Aleksandar Jablanovic,said that Mustafa's decision to exclude him from the coalition government was "deeply disappointing."

“The protests held by the Self-Determination Movement were not so much directed against me as against Serbs and their participation in the government,” he said.

The decision to sack Jablanovic was " terribly wrong," Marko Djuric, director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija, has said.

The decisions on further steps will be made after the meeting of the Serb members of the provincial government and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Wednesday evening, said a statement.

“We will not accept the humiliation of Serb representatives in the provincial institutions,” Djuric said.