Vučić: Serbia does not intend to relocate Serbs from Kosovo

(Patria) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated that the authorities in Belgrade do not intend to relocate Serbs from Kosovo, RSE reports.

Responding to journalists' questions about the meeting of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Pristina with the President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Sonja Biserko, and the former leader of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Nenad Čanak, he characterized their claims that Belgrade is likely preparing to relocate Serbs from northern Kosovo as untrue.

- Serbs from Kosovo will remain in Kosovo despite the desire of Kurti, Čanak, Biserko, and many others for Serbs from Kosovo to disappear - Vučić said today during a visit to Stanari near Doboj.

Biserko told RSE that she conveyed her concerns to the Prime Minister of Kosovo regarding some claims from Serbia that houses are being built in the "Sandžak region in Serbia" to house Kosovo Serbs, especially those from the north.

The Kosovo government announced yesterday that Kurti received Biserko, as well as Čanak, and Marko Bašne, senior advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

The statement said they informed Kurti that such a possibility is being discussed in Serbia and stated that it should be verified.

- As someone who has been dealing with the issue of refugees since the 1990s, I remind you that there have always been rumors that later resulted in an exodus or displacement of the population.

We told the Kosovo government that they should pay attention to this information and do everything to ensure that the Serbian population remains in the north of Kosovo - Biserko told RSE.

According to her, it is up to society and the Kosovo government, as well as civil and international organizations, to verify the accuracy of this information.

There are ten municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo, located north and south of the Ibar River.

The exact number of inhabitants is not known, as Serbs from four municipalities in the north - North Mitrovica, Zvečan, Zubin Potok, and Leposavić - largely boycotted the census, which was conducted in the spring of this year.

According to preliminary data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, published on July 12, only about 6,500 people responded to the census in these areas, while it is believed that tens of thousands live there.