Petkovic to UN: Pristina Flouts Its Own Laws at Gazivode
Kosovo Office director Petar Petkovic received UN Secretary-General envoy Dominika Krois in Belgrade and presented evidence of Pristina's unilateral moves, urging compliance with Resolution 1244.
- Kosovo Office director Petar Petkovic received UN Secretary-General envoy Dominika Krois in Belgrade.
- The central topic was the demolition of Serb-owned homes at Lake Gazivode without a court order.
- Petkovic noted that Pristina has refused to form the Community of Serb Municipalities for 13 years.
- Belgrade is demanding full compliance with UN Resolution 1244.
Petar Petkovic, director of Serbia’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, met in Belgrade with Dominika Krois, the representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of the UN Office in Belgrade. The talks, held shortly after the demolition of Serb-owned property at Lake Gazivode, focused on the position of the Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohija and a series of unilateral steps taken by Pristina’s provisional institutions without legal grounds.
Petkovic presented the UN envoy with what he described as evidence of Pristina consciously violating its own regulations. At the heart of the meeting was the removal of vacation homes that Serbs had used for decades along the shore of Gazivode, carried out without any court ruling. The director stressed that this was not an isolated incident but part of a pattern aimed at pushing the Serbian population out of the north of the province.
Gazivode demolitions as part of a pattern
Petkovic told Krois that the demolition order had not been issued by a court but through an administrative move, which, in his words, meant Pristina had trampled on its own laws. Alongside the Gazivode case, the director raised the issue of politically motivated arrests of Serbs, which he called a mechanism of intimidation and expulsion.
He also noted that Pristina’s institutions have for 13 years refused to establish the Community of Serb Municipalities, despite it being an obligation undertaken in the EU-brokered dialogue. Taken together, he argued, these moves create impossible living conditions for the Serbian population in the north. At the same time, Petkovic stated that Belgrade, despite the pressure on the ground, remains committed to peace, stability and continued dialogue, provided that international law is respected.
Will the UN respond to the breach of Resolution 1244?
The appeal to UN Security Council Resolution 1244 formed the backbone of Petkovic’s presentation. That document, adopted in 1999, is still regarded by Belgrade as a binding legal framework for all actors on the ground. The director asked that the guarantees in the Resolution be applied consistently rather than selectively, and that legal protection be restored to Serb property.
For Belgrade, the meeting with the UN Secretary-General’s envoy is not a ceremonial act but an attempt to enter the Gazivode case into the world body’s official record. Pristina’s institutions have so far offered no reaction to Petkovic’s claims, leaving open the question of where responsibility will lie if the pressure on the ground does not stop.
The meeting leaves a clear dilemma. Will the diplomatic track, rather than new moves on the ground, bring any concrete progress in protecting Serb property in the north of Kosovo and Metohija?
