The head of the Serbian government’s Kosovo office, Marko Djuric, attended the opening of a NIS gas station in Kosovo today, despite the fact he did not get permission to do so from Kosovo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Djuric told Serbian media after the event that he is forced to travel through Kosovo now in an alternative way similar to how Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa, did when he visited the town of Zvecane in the Mitrovica district of Kosovo two weeks ago to attend a ceremony for the opening of a bridge on the Bistrica river.
"I don't think this is the way to contribute to normalisations of [Kosovo–Serbia] relations, but I'm a free man, Serbia is a free country. We know here [in Serbia] how to defend our freedom," Djuric told media.
Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, told media that the EU had been informed about the case and asked it to prohibit activities that oppose the spirit of the Brussels Agreement.
Controversial Serbian businessman Bogoljub Karic is planning to return to Serbia before New Year’s Eve, despite still being wanted on an arrest warrant issued in 2006, Blic daily reported on Friday.
According to Blic, Karic did not want to reveal the exact date of his intended return, but said he is not going to “make a theatre [show]” of his arrival.
Karic has spent the last 11 years in Russia after leaving Serbia when the government started to investigate the “Mobtel” case, in which Karic was accused of siphoning off more than 60 million euros from the former mobile carrier Mobtel.
Kosovo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a protest note to the EU on Friday over the visit by the head of the Serbian Office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, to the town of Mitrovica as it had not been agreed with the ministry.
"By coming to Kosovo, despite the ban [imposed on him in September], Djuric provoked institutions and security organs,” the ministry stated. “Illegal entry to Kosovo is against the agreement on mutual visits, which was reached in Brussels between Kosovo and Serbia."
The ministry added that Djuric’s activities show the disappointing direction that the head of the Serbian Office for Kosovo has taken in his career.
Djuric visited Kosovo on Thursday to open a new petrol station, but his visit was not approved by Kosovo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Djuric managed to reach Mitrovica using an ambulance and two Kosovo police officials have been suspended for 48 hours over the incident.