Kosovo police interrupt Serb minister's visit

Police told the minister that he "cannot move in that area without the Kosovo government permission".

After he visited the village of Sevce on his way to Štrpce, Bogdanovic and his team were stopped by a large number of KPS members, including those from a "special unit", dubbed "Rosa", said reports.

According to the same reports, Bogdanovic asked to see a written statement from the government in Pristina prohibiting him movement. But a regional KPS commanders said that he had an oral order that Bogdanovic "must leave Kosovo".

The armed members of KPS escorted the minister to the administrative line checkpoint of Merdare.

Bogdanovic commented on the incident by saying that it was an ill thought-through move by Kosovo's temporary authorities, since he was a resident of Kosovo and "as such, regardless of the ministerial office, had a right to free movement in Kosovo".

"This is a demonstration that there is no freedom of movement in Kosovo and that local Serbs, residents of Kosovo, myself included, are being denied our basic human right," said he.

Bogdanovic added that he "did not wish to create incidents", and repeated that today's events were "the best example of how Serbs live in Kosovo".

"As far as my future visits to Kosovo and Metohija are concerned, there's no doubt there, no one can stop me," the minister said, and reminded that he was born in Kosovo and Metohija, where he now lives with his family.

As for the KPS road block, Bogdanovic said it was a "product of intention, rather than misunderstanding", and that the goal of it was to "provoke incidents with Serbs in Strpce".

"It almost came to that, but I appealed on the people to be calm and accepted the decision to leave the municipality of Strpce and the territory of Kosovo and Metohija," said the minister.

Announcing "continued pragmatic and constructive Serb government policy toward Kosovo", Bogdanovic said he will "continue to appeal for reconciliation between Serbs and [ethnic] Albanians".

"Albanians know I never used hate speech but always urged peace and tolerance", he said, but added that he can "never accept that Kosovo should be an independent state".

After the incident near the southern Serb enclave on Wednesday, Bogdanovic left the province via the Merdare administrative line checkpoint, to then return to his home in Leposavic, northern Kosovo.

Speaking after the incident, Bogdanovic noted that he "did not even travel in an official vehicle, but used a private car with Kosovo license plates, and carried personal documents issued by UNMIK that are valid in Kosovo".

The minister said that he did not ask for permission to visit Strpce, but that he notified the EU mission in the province, EULEX, about the time and place of his trip.

Bogdanovic announced that he would "contact only this mission the next time as well", and concluded that the government in Pristina will realize that they had made a mistake, "since they can only create extremists this way".

On Wednesday, the EU special representative's office in Priština said that Bogdanović had broken procedures for his visit and that he was turned away for this reason, while in Belgrade Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic summoned western ambassadors stationed in Belgrade to lodge his protest.

He told the ambassadors it was unacceptable to in this way violate the human rights and freedom of movement in Kosovo.

The Prime minister also asked for the countries represented by the envoys to support a condemnation of the actions of EULEX and KFOR, and to also support securing of civilized living conditions in Kosovo.