Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told the Vojvodina public broadcaster (RTV) that Belgrade has nothing to do with the armed group that clashed with the Kosovo police on Sunday in the Banjska village in northern Kosovo and that he does not know who organized that group.

However, he added that “whoever it is that is organizing them in the fight for the freedom of the Serb people must take the effects into consideration.”

The Minister said the conflict in Banjska “is not in Belgrade’s interest,” and that a solution to the current situation is de-escalation, increased KFOR presence and new local elections in the north of Kosovo.

He said the Kosovo Police “has no right” to be in northern Kosovo, because the local Serbs there and Serbia do not recognize Kosovo as a state.

Regarding Pristina’s claims that Belgrade had organized and armed the group that clashed with the Kosovo Police, Dacic said he does not know who organized it, but that Pristina’s “official concept” is to accuse Belgrade of everything.

Asked whether the deputy leader of the Belgrade-backed Serb List, Milan Radoicic, led the armed group in Banjska, Dacic said he could not say and that he does not know whether Radoicic is receiving medical treatment in Belgrade.

The Minister noted that the loss of human lives, Serb or Albanian, is not in Serbia’s interest and that it would be best if the whole process were to go back to how it was defined ten years ago – to try to normalize everyday life through dialogue, without going into status issues.

“And this is where we come to the key problem, which is that Kurti refuses to accept that the negotiations are status neutral. Had we abided by that, these incidents would not have happened,“ said Dacic.