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PREŠEVO -- Riza Halimi says incidents and attacks on Albanian property across Serbia are heightening tensions in the south.
Halimi, the only Albanian deputy in the Serbian parliament and president of the Party of Democratic Action (PDD) believes that the situation is being aggravated by a "series of very belligerent and irresponsible statements coming from the authorities, where every move towards European integration is rejected."
He stated that the PDD, together with the Albanians from southern Serbia, were trying to “instill the hope that a normal life for all citizens will be guaranteed with a normal path towards European integration’.
According to the PDD leader, “there have been no incidents so far“ in the Preševo Valley.
"The only worrying fact is that a rather aggressive meeting of war reservists was allowed to take place in Medveđe. I am not in any way against an expression of democratic will, but, in general, manipulation with war reservists and reminders of the hard days we experienced here in 1999 will again lead to a destabilization of the situation both here and on a wider scale,” Halimi surmised.
He reiterated that "when conflicts developed in the Presevo Valley, the government at the time, in cooperation with NATO, took the decision to relax the Ground Safety Zone."
"The whole time we strongly opposed the presence of army and police forces in the valley, since they are not suitable for the situation, and are here in relation to goings-on in Kosovo and the eventual recognition or otherwise of an independent Kosovo. To a certain degree, we are hostages to that situation," the PDD leader pointed out.
He claimed that, "as far as state interests are concerned, this militarization is useless and quite harmful."
"I don’t expect a return to the Ground Safety Zone’s previous state, because that is only envisaged in the case of larger conflicts," said Halimi, adding that "even with the present negative situation he does not expect that it will reach a stage where the KFOR commander will have to intervene."
"It is in the interests of the state itself that stability here is preserved through political, economic and social measures, and that this military component is used as little as possible," said Halimi.
In addition to the fact that he does not believe that KFOR will act rashly, Halimi warned that it was in the interests of the region that "we, on this side, think more seriously and sensibly."
Source: B92
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