Serbia will not permit killings, expulsions of Serbs from Kosovo — Vucic

 Serbia will not permit killings and expulsions of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, like those during the anti-Serbian pogroms in 2008, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said following a meeting of the National Security Council on Thursday.

"Serbia will not permit killings and expulsions of the Serbian people from Kosovo and Metohija, like those which often happened in 2008," Vucic said while addressing the nation after an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, convened in connection with an aggravation of the situation in Kosovo. Vucic said that Belgrade, in the light of an aggravation in Kosovo, had taken certain measures regarding the Serbian armed forces. The measures are strictly secret and will not be disclosed.

Vucic said that out of the 9,000 car owners in Kosovo only 3 had agreed to the change of license plates. In this regard, the Quinta countries (US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy) delivered to Serbia a document containing a statement agreed with the EU to the effect that "Pristina has a legitimate right" to its own car license plates.

"This is a complete lie," the Serbian leader stressed.

Vucic read out all clauses of the agreements between Belgrade and Pristina regarding car license plates, and once again recalled that there were no agreements on replacing Serbian plates with Kosovo’s ones.

"But they don't care. They think that they can take this liberty. And they do this," Vucic said.

The Serbian leader also recalled that Pristina had no right to create an army according to all international documents.

Earlier, Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija said they would offer peaceful, democratic resistance to Pristina, should Kosovo’s Albanians begin to confiscate their cars with Serbian license plates. The leader of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, Goran Rakic, said that if Pristina acts on its threats, the Serbs will block all of Kosovo’s entries and exits.

Earlier, the prime minister of the unrecognized Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said that the process of replacing Serbian documents and vehicles’ license plates would have to be completed by October 31, in defiance of requests from the Quinta countries (US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy) for postponing the ban on Serbian license plates in Kosovo and Methods for ten months.