“Cooperation with Croatian army necessary”

Belgrade, May 31. 2010 (Serbia Today) - EULEX announced that unapproved visits from officials and politicians” from central Serbia will “no longer be allowed. Serbian minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović reacting to the new accused the EU mission in the province, EULEX, of taking the side of Kosovo Albanians. “If they do not have authorization, the delegations will not be allowed to continue their trips,” said  spokesperson for the EU mission in Kosovo Karin Limdal  for Albanian language daily Koha Ditore.  “Taking into consideration the unauthorized visits of Serbian officials to Kosovo, in close cooperation with Brussels and the EU, EULEX has issued a decree for Kosovo police to control Serbian delegations to see whether they are authorized to visit Kosovo or not”, she was quoted as saying.  The mission has handed out a set of rules to Kosovo police, KPS, on procedures, and has also given these guidelines to police in the Serb-dominated northern Kosovska Mitrovica, said reports. The rules state that the obligation of the police is to check every vehicle with Serbian officials to see if they have been authorized to visit Kosovo. The Priština newspaper writes that a “record number of Serbian officials” visited Kosovska Mitrovica on Tuesday, in preparation for the coming local elections, adding that the officials “promised that Kosovo would remain an inseparable part of Serbia”.  EULEX has already announced that it would not “recognize” the early local elections due to be held in Serb municipalities in the north.  "Clearly, with this move EULEX has taken the side of Priština, assuming the role of the secessionists' advocate, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244,” said Serbian minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović stated. “Our patience and our demonstrated constructive approach have their limits”, the minister warned in a statement carried by Beta news agency.  Bogdanović added that EULEX's decision meant that it also violated the neutrality which is spelt out in its mandate.  The minister noted that this decision came after a recent statement by EU envoy for northern Kosovo Michael Giffoni, who was quoted as saying that the status of Kosovo was a “closed issue as far as the Union was concerned.” “I demand that EULEX urgently reverse this decision, because otherwise, as I have stated, our cooperation and relations will be seriously brought into question. This decision was clearly deliberately timed ahead of the (local) elections in (northern Kosovska) Mitrovica, to in this way join in Priština's provocations,” said the minister.  Bogdanović added that the early local elections in the Serb-dominated municipality would be held regardless of provocations, and that they would serve to “confirm the credibility of the state of Serbia, strengthen her institutions and presence in the Province, and especially in its northern part”.  “I would like to stress that this morning I traveled from Belgrade with no problems to the northern part of the Province, where I am right now. How will anyone prohibit me, born and living in Kosovo and Metohija, or any other politician from the Province, from going to our own homes,” Bogdanović said in his statement.