Kosovo foreign minister says Serbian PM not welcome in Kosovo

NEWS 31.05.201911:36
ARMEND NIMANI / AFP

Kosovo Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli said on Thursday that Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic would not be allowed to visit Kosovo as long as she implemented "a racist and sick ideology against the population of Kosovo", the media in Pristina said.

Pacolli’s statememt came after Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Wednesday that the people Serbia was dealing with in Kosovo “are people who have literally walked out of the woods”.

In a statement made at a news conference she held with the head of the EU Mission in Belgrade, Sem Fabrizi, Brnabic described the Kosovo leaders as “people who have literally walked out of the woods.”

Pacolli was quoted by the media in Pristina as saying that the institutional racism in Serbia that Brnabic was promoting had its roots in a sick ultranationalist ideology.

“What scares me the most is that you have to deal with irrational people, the worst kind of populists, people who have literally walked out of the woods. Some of them are terrorists who have not been convicted, they were on trial in The Hague but were not convicted just because all witnesses were killed. How can we know what they will do tomorrow? They don’t care if there is war over there, that is what scares me,” Brnabic said in reference to some of the Kosovo leaders.

Responding to messages from Pristina that she was not welcome in Kosovo, Brnabic said on Thursday that she was not worried by Pacolli’s statement and that she was confident that she would be able to visit Kosovo when she wanted.

“Those people are preventing the free movement of goods, and the next step will be to prevent the free movement of people… If they think that will make life in Kosovo better, I disagree,” said Brnabic.

Commenting on Kosovo President Hashim Thaci’s statement that he would not allow the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo, Brnabic said that this showed “the degree of their irresponsibility”.

“Establishing a Community of Serb Municipalities would bring peace and I regret that Pristina is sending the message that ethnic Serbs do not have any rights,” said Brnabic.