The US Assistant Secretary of State, James O’Brien, said at the weekend that Serbia has promised that Millan Radoicic will face the law regarding the September events in Banjska i Zvecan.
Radoicic has taken responsibility for the armed attack on the Kosovo Police, where police officer Afrim Bunjaku was killed.
The American official said during the Dubrovnik forum that he expects Serbia to keep its promise.
“The US and the EU have consistently said that the crimes committed in September [in Banjska] must be punished. We expect and I believe we have been promised that Mr. Radoicic will go through a full legal process in Serbia. It is a good thing that it seems that it is not active in the north of Kosovo, as it was earlier, we see that there are positive benefits from this. Charges have been filed against him and we expect the process against him to be completed,” said O’Brien.
Serbia accuses Radoicic of purchasing weapons, ammunition and explosive devices of great destructive power from Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from January 2023 to September 24. The authorities have banned him from coming to Kosovo.
The authorities in Kosovo consider the attack in Banjska an act of aggression and have accused Serbia of having a hand in it. Belgrade has denied involvement.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has decided as one of the conditions for engaging in dialogue with Serbia, the surrender of Radoicic and his group to the judicial authorities of Kosovo.
The European Union has said that Serbia is not ready to accept this condition, during the last round of dialogue held on June 26.
Speaking about Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, O’Brien said that the possibility of using force to resolve issues should be excluded in the two states.
“I think we should also be clear that the use of force to reach a solution should be excluded. This includes the most sensitive parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the north of Kosovo, and I think that here the relevant state actors have taken strong positions that they do not support the use of force in these areas. But we have to move away from the discussion about violence, state violence. That would allow us to use the tools we have in a way that we think would be productive,” O’Brien said.
Even in the past, US officials have warned against the use of violence to resolve disagreements in the Western Balkans region.
Meanwhile, officials in Kosovo, including the president, Vjosa Osmani, and the prime minister, Albin Kurti, have said several times that Serbia has territorial ambitions against Kosovo.
