Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 held a phone conversation with US Senators Chris Murphy, Jeanne Shaheen, and Pete Ricketts regarding the situation in Kosovo.<\/p>\n
According to a statement from the Serbian Presidency, the Senators called for self-restraint from Serbia and emphasized the need for peace.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurphy, Shaheen, and Ricketts told President Vu\u010di\u0107 that they seek self-restraint from Serbia and call for peace because it is in the best interest of everyone in the Western Balkans,\u201d the Serbian Presidency statement said.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the sole topic of the conversation was the situation in northern Kosovo.<\/p>\n
Vu\u010di\u0107 told the US Senators that the arrest of Milun Milenkovi\u0107 Lune was clearly and without any doubt a provocation and a crime committed by Kosovo\u2019s Prime Minister Albin Kurti. The Serbian President stated that Kurti is attempting \u201cto provoke a war in the heart of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSerbia is doing everything to preserve peace, but the Serbian people in Kosovo have been subjected to torture and the worst persecution in the last 15 years,\u201d Vu\u010di\u0107 was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
On June 13th<\/sup>, the Kosovo Police conducted an operation in North Mitrovica, where Milun Milenkovi\u0107 Lune was arrested. According to Kosovo\u2019s Minister of Internal Affairs Xhelal Sve\u00e7la, the arrested individual is \u201cone of the leaders of the criminal group \u2018Civilian Protection\u2019 and the leader of criminal gangs that have terrorized our citizens over the years.\u201d According to Sve\u00e7la, he was one of the organizers of the attacks against NATO members in Zve\u010dan on May 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Reacting to the issue, Petar Petkovi\u0107, the Director of the Office for Kosovo in the Serbian Government, stated that Milun Milenkovi\u0107 Lune is not a criminal and that the Kosovo Police has no evidence to support the charges against him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a distinguished fighter for Serbian national interests and the rights of Serbs in northern Kosovo,\u201d he said during a press conference in Belgrade.<\/p>\n Petkovi\u0107 called on KFOR to urgently react and remove the special units of the Kosovo Police from the north.<\/p>\n He also mentioned that Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 had several conversations with the EU Special Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Laj\u010d\u00e1k, and other international officials.<\/p>\n Petkovi\u0107 further stated that General Major Angelo Michele Ristuccia, Commander of KFOR, will stay in Belgrade on Wednesday, June 14th<\/sup>, and hold talks with Vu\u010di\u0107 and the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Milan Mojsilovi\u0107.<\/p>\n Following this police operation in northern Kosovo on June 13th<\/sup>, where three police officers were injured, local Serbs gathered in the Bosniak Quarter. In addition to the Kosovo Police, American KFOR soldiers were also seen there.<\/p>\n Some members of the Kosovo Police have withdrawn, but a police official stated that the institution is \u201creorganizing\u201d its presence in the north.<\/p>\n The operation in northern Mitrovica, a municipality predominantly inhabited by Serbs, took place on the same day when Kosovo\u2019s Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that he had presented a five-point plan to the international community, aimed at reducing tensions.<\/p>\n In the past two weeks, tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have escalated once again as protests have taken place in four northern municipalities by local Serbian groups opposing the appointment of new Albanian municipal leaders in North Mitrovica, Zve\u010dan, Zubin Potok, and Leposavi\u0107.<\/p>\n Tensions peaked on May 29th<\/sup> when masked Serbian groups in Zve\u010dan injured 30 KFOR soldiers, three of whom were armed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 held a phone conversation with US Senators Chris Murphy, Jeanne Shaheen, and Pete Ricketts regarding the situation in Kosovo. According to a statement from the Serbian Presidency, the Senators called for self-restraint from Serbia and emphasized the need for peace. \u201cMurphy, Shaheen, and Ricketts told President Vu\u010di\u0107 that they seek self-restraint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":54640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[2471,817,2774,1098,243,151,428,791,2203,992,715,2775,2047,2585,2374,787],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n