Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic called on Pristina to honour the reached agreements and the United Nations to stay in Kosovo and Metohija as "an honest broker " and guarantor that the other party would not violate the agreements.
Speaking at the UN Security Council meeting devoted to Kosovo, Mrkic recalled that the Brussels agreement was signed in April 2013, pointing out that the foundations laid by that Agreement had to be solidified.

"The First Agreement on normalization of relations is a good start, but it only lays down the groundwork for a hard work that is ahead of us", explained Mrkic warning that attempts at obstructing the Agreement should not be taken lightly because "they not only meant reverting to the past but widening of the deep-seated mistrust that we wish to overcome".

Mrkic reiterated that Serbia had neither recognized nor would it recognize Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence, thanking, at the same time, those UN Member States which had not done so.
In his words, the Brussels Agreement was signed in order to render easier the resolution of issues of vital importance to all people in this province and in the hope that Pristina would share our enthusiasm for overcoming problems we had been faced with for a long time.

"However, I note with regret that this is not always the case. We are not aware if there is a political will in Pristina, but we know that concrete results in dealing with problems of ordinary people are lacking very much, especially problems plaguing minority groups in the Province", said the Minister, who believed that further stay of the United Nations was, therefore, extremely important for the future development of the situation there.

"If we are truly desirous of a future when it will be possible to live in peace and free from fear of existence, we must solidify the foundations laid by the Brussels Agreement", emphasized Mrkic.
According to him, this required, in addition to good will and hard work, "an honest broker, not the one who will be doing the job for us but someone who will see to it that all stakeholders in the process are guided by the idea of long-term improvements for all people, rather than by the idea of domination of the ethnic majority".

"Serbia looks upon the United Nations precisely as cast in the role of someone who will impartially oversee the historic reconciliation process", was the message of Minister Mrkic.
Stressing that he would wish that Belgrade and Pristina were able to reach agreement without assistance from the outside, Mrkic added that he feared that "Like the signing of the Brussels Agreement would not have been possible, had it not been for the EU facilitation, in the same way the implementation of the Agreement would, maybe, not be possible, either, without an active participation of the United Nations".

"We are firmly committed to proving that Serbia has risen up to the challenges and tasks facing it, but we also need a guarantor that the other party will not undermine the already reached agreements", said the Minister.
Pointing out that Serbia had invested enormous efforts to find solutions acceptable to all sides, Mrkic emphasized that he would like that the other party, as well, made efforts to carry out the much-needed changes on the ground.

"Obviously, the status quo situation is much more suitable to the other side. We therefore suppose that they would like the international players to leave the Province ", said Mrkic drawing attention to the efforts by Pristina to put an end to the UNMIK's mandate.
Noting that the aims of the two sides differed over this issue, Mrkic reiterated that Belgrade still maintained that the Brussels Agreement was just a beginning and not the end of normalizing relations, adding that: "We would not have warned against the attempts at undermining the agreements had we not observed, in a very short span of time, a number of such attempts".
As an example of such conduct on the part of Pristina, the Minister mentioned the amendment made by the Kosovo Parliament to the budget law which, as he put it, violated the previous agreement of the two parties reached in January in the Implementation Group on Integrated Border Management (IBM).
Namely, under the Agreement, the funds from the transferred goods by bodies and entities in northern municipalities of Kosovo should be remitted to the Northern Kosovo Development Fund. However, the amendment submitted by the Kosovo Parliament envisaged the establishment of the Development Fund of the Association of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija, so that, initially, the funds would be first transferred to the Kosovo budget and only then to the Northern Kosovo Development Fund.
Another example given by Minister Mrkic was the situation in the neighbourhood of Brdjani where, according to the report of the Secretary-General's Special Representative Farid Zarif, Serbs protested against the attempts by Albanian IDPs to build their homes in Northern Mitrovica.
"The truth of the matter is the persistence of Albanians of Kosovo and Metohija to alter the ethnic structure of Brdjani through land grabbing and building without a permit", said the Minister adding that the local Serbs protested only after they found out that Kosovo Albanians were planning to build 172 housing units on that location, intended for the veterans of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army who had never lived there prior to 1999.
Mrkic suggested that SPSG Farid Zarif should draw up an exact list of Kosovo Albanians who lived in Brdjani before June 1999 and annex it to the next report.
He also pointed out that building confidence in Kosovo and Metohija was not helped either by the signing of the military agreement by Pristina and Albania, noting that the exchange of military personnel, as provided for by the agreement, would add up to the anxiety of minority communities.
"Such an agreement has a potential, in case a political decision is made, to endanger the security of people in a real way and have the ethnic pogrom of March 2004 re-occur", believed Mrkic warning that the signature of the agreement sent a clear message to all non-Albanian communities of who was in control of the power.
As he added, it should not be overlooked that, at least in theory, the agreement provided for the possibility that full military force be deployed by the Republic of Albania, which possessed heavy weapons, whereas, at least formally, the so-called Kosovo Security Force did not.
"We do not expect that Pristina will use this agreement with Albania for military actions in the field, but we have to highlight the consequence: the intimidation of minority communities", said Mrkic recalling that likewise, no one believed the pogrom was possible before it happened in 2004 or that Pristina would dispatch a special force to northern Kosovo in the summer of 2011.
In his words, if we wished to solidify the trust that we have only begun to build, we needed guarantees that force would not be used.
"For, if Serbs and the other non-Albanians of Kosovo and Metohija constantly see that Pristina has negotiated one thing with Belgrade and then continues with its attempts to carry out something quite different, instead of building lasting peace, all our efforts to arrive at agreements would only amount to increasing the mistrust existing among minority communities", told the Minister to the Security Council.
Reminding the Council that Serbs, both north and south of the Ibar River, experienced problems, he suggested that the next report prepared by SRSG Zarif reviewed the situation of Serbs, Gorani and other non-Albanians living south of the Ibar River.
Mrkic also mentioned that Serbs across Kosovo faced violation of their property rights, especially when enterprises in Serb communities were sold to Albanian businessmen through the Kosovo Privatization Agency (KPA).
He recalled the position held by the United Nations that the KPA was not the legal successor to the Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA), underlining that the KPA existed in contravention of the UNMIK position, and called for the withdrawal of the decision on the funding of the KPA, which, as he added, had already abused its powers in favour of the majority community on a number of occasions.

The Minister drew attention to the UNHCR figures indicating that 210,148 IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija still lived in Serbia and more than 70 per cent of them were Serbs, saying that the report indicated that the number of incidents against minority communities had been reduced, but that the report said nothing of the number of found and tried perpetrators or the number of cases, solved and unsolved, or the measures taken by the authorities, police, prosecutors or courts.
"The practice of impunity for violence against Serbs continues", said Mrkic referring to the fact that we still did not know who killed 14 reapers at the village of Staro Gracko way back in 1999 or Serb children at Gorazdevac in 2003 or who was responsible for the 2004 pogrom which resulted in 19 dead and 4,000 displaced and no court proceeding yet.
"None of these cases has been solved so far, which leads us to believe the culture of impunity persists in Kosovo and Metohija", said the Minister adding that minority communities surely did not feel safe in an environment like this, for this reason there were no more returns and the Liaison Officer with Belgrade would not have been "the 118th Serb in Pristina, the city that numbered 40,000 Serbs not so long ago".
He mentioned that in 2012, only 302 Serbs returned to Kosovo, as compared to 464 of them in 2001, witnessing to a decline in the already fewer returns.
As a way of intimidating the Serb population by Pristina, Mrkic singled out arrests made under secret indictments on war crime charges that were arbitrarily brought against Serbs.
In this context, he called on EULEX, which was competent to establish responsibility for war crimes, to make public the list of indictments to ease the tensions in the Serb community, whose members lived in fear of arbitrary arrests.
The Serbian Foreign Minister took this opportunity to reaffirm again the importance of a full and effective investigation into the allegations of organ trafficking, adding that Serbia stood ready to continue to cooperate with the EULEX team of investigators, expressing the hope that the investigation would soon yield results.
Mrkic levelled his criticism at the attempts at "Kosovizing" Serbian cultural and historical heritage in Kosovo and Metohija and thus destroying evidence of centuries of Serb existence and survival in this territory, all with the aim of reinforcing so-called Kosovo's independence.
In closing his statement, Mrkic reiterated that the political will of Pristina as a mere lip service was not enough and that concrete results were needed now as well as tremendous efforts and specific steps to ensure physical protection and safety of property of minority communities, advising that such steps were to be taken by Pristina but that the process would evolve much more easily and faster with UNMIK's assistance.
"Aware of the opportunity presented to it, the Republic of Serbia expects continued assistance from the international community, the United Nations in particular, in confidence building, which we believe is the only sound foundation to bring about normal life for all in Kosovo and Metohija", concluded Mrkic.

Mrkic: "Aware of the opportunity presented to it, Serbia expects further assistance from the international community, the UN in particular, in confidence building, which we believe to be the only sound foundation for establishing a normal life for all in Kosovo and Metohija"

Mrkic: "The signing of the agreement sends a clear message to all non-Albanian communities on who controls force"

Mrkic criticized attempts at "Kosovizing" Serbian cultural and historical heritage in KiM

Mrkic on the situation at Brdjani

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivan Mrkic

UNSC meeting on Kosovo

United Nations in New York