00:00 Serbian President Aleksandar Vujadjaricus said on Monday that Washington's reports
00:05 last week warning of a big build-up of Serbian troops on the Kosovo border were not fully
00:10 accurate.
00:11 Speaking to CNN's Kristiana Monpore in an interview, Vujadjaricus said, "We always
00:18 appreciated all the reports that were coming from NSC, the National Security Council, the
00:24 White House, and all the other institutions that are coming from the United States.
00:29 But the real issue is that these reports were not fully accurate.
00:33 The White House said last week that it was concerned, warning of an unprecedented build-up
00:38 of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks, and mechanized infantry units near the Kosovo
00:43 frontier and calling for an immediate de-escalation.
00:46 "A year ago, we used to have 14,000 people at the administrative line with Kosovo.
00:53 Few days ago, we used to have less than 8,400.
00:57 Today we have 4,400, which is a regular number of people," Vujadjaricus said.
01:03 "We always hear, and we always listened when our partners were asking us to de-escalate
01:09 a situation and we did it this time, although there were no reasons for a big worry, because
01:14 we didn't need any kind of wars, any kind of clashes with NATO," he added.
01:20 When asked why the Serbian government moved more troops to the border, Vujadjaricus said
01:26 that Serbia's army follow the situation in the field, and they move our forces in
01:31 a way that they believe it can be broken bar the most useful and they have their own operations
01:36 and everything else but "I did not sign even a high alert for our army people."
01:41 The long fractious ties between Serbia and neighboring Kosovo flared in late September,
01:47 when 30 armed men opened fire on a Kozovar police patrol in the village of Banjska, in
01:53 northern Kosovo, before barricading themselves inside an Orthodox monastery.
01:58 The ensuing hour-slung shootout left one Kozovar police officer and three gunmen dead.
02:05 Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani pointed the finger at Belgrade for inciting the violence.
02:10 A top Kosovo Serb politician, Milan Radojacic said this weekend that he took part in the
02:16 gun battle, Reuters reported.
02:18 In a letter sent to Reuters by his lawyer, Radojacic, who is wanted in Kosovo and lives
02:24 in neighboring Serbia, said he personally prepared logistics for the defense of Serb
02:29 people and received no help from the Serb authorities.
02:32 Radojacic is under US sanctions for suspected links to organized crime.
02:37 When asked if Radojacic will face accountability that the European Union is demanding, the
02:43 Serbian president said, "Of course, Serbia will held accountable all the people that
02:48 committed criminal deeds and that we might find on our territory a broken bar prosecutors
02:53 will do their job," but said that the issue started from the Serbs wanting to protect
02:58 themselves.
02:59 "I'm not going to defend a killing of an Albanian police guy and I didn't do it.
03:04 I condemned that.
03:05 But I'm saying that Serbs were arresting with no charges, home searches, evictions,
03:11 expropriations, everything that was not in accordance with a Brussels agreement," he
03:16 added.
03:17 Fragile Peace.
03:18 The clash was one of the worst since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008,
03:24 almost a decade after a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces responsible for a
03:30 brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanians, from Kosovo, leading to the end of the 1998-99
03:37 war.
03:39 More than 20 years on since the war, a fragile peace has been preserved in Kosovo, while
03:45 Serbia continues to view it as a breakaway state and does not recognize its independence.
03:51 Kosovo's Serbs view themselves as part of Serbia, and see Belgrade as their capital,
03:56 rather than Pristina.
03:58 The confrontation comes months after ethnic Serbs attacked dozens of NATO peacekeepers
04:03 in the town of Zvken, in northern Kosovo, in May.
04:07 The clashes broke out after Serbian demonstrators tried to block newly elected ethnically Albanian
04:13 mayors from taking office, following a disputed election in April.
04:18 Western leaders were quick to condemn the violent actions, urging both parties to de-escalate
04:23 tensions.
04:24 The violence has ratcheted tensions in the Balkan region as the EU and US mediators attempt
04:30 to finalize year-slung talks to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo.
04:35 When asked about his thoughts on the Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic leaving a political
04:40 message on a TV camera lens at the French Open in May in response to violent clashes
04:45 in Kosovo, the president said he believes Djokovic was expressing his feelings from
04:51 the bottom of his heart but stressed that Serbian politicians need to be pragmatic about
04:56 the situation.
04:57 Following his first-round victory against American Aleksandar Kovacevic, Djokovic wrote
05:02 Kosovo is the "heart" of Serbia.
05:05 "Stop the violence in Serbian on a camera lens, using a heart symbol.
05:10 I believe that Novak Djokovic was saying something from the bottom of his heart.
05:14 99% of people Serbian believe in that but I can tell you one thing, that we politicians
05:21 need to be pragmatic, rational, which means that we need to find solutions through negotiating
05:27 process, through constructive approach," the Serbian leader said.
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