The sitting was closed to the public, pursuant to item 21, line 1, of the Decision on handling classified information adopted by the Committee on Administrative, Budgetary, Mandate and Immunity Issues, because the information presented to the Committee was classified.

Pursuant to Article 256, paragraph 1, of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure, the Committee unanimously decided to issue a statement concerning the closed sitting, which was issued by Committee Chairman Milovan Drecun, pursuant to Article 256, paragraph 2, of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure:

“At today’s sitting of the Committee on Kosovo-Metohija which was closed to the public, we discussed the current security situation in Kosovo-Metohija, with a special focus on the security of the Serbian people in view of the events in Macedonia.
We concluded that the security situation in Kosovo-Metohija, in view of the events in Macedonia, is relatively stable, but tense with indications that the security threat levels to the Serbian people could rise.
The events in Macedonia, considering that it is our estimate that the tensions will not abate, but escalate, is an additional threat to the security of the Serbian people in Kosovo-Metohija.
The centre of illegal activities in Kosovo-Metohija, relating to amassing and stockpiling of armament, recruitment of terrorists and assembling of terrorist groups to be deployed outside of Kosovo-Metohija, is Gnjilane, which is a threat for the Serbian people living in the Kosovo-Pomoravlje district.
According to estimates, Serbs living in the north of Kosovo are the safest right now due to their homogeneity and compactness, but they do not enjoy maximum security. As regards Serbs on the territory from Gracanica to Kosovo-Pomoravlje, they are under the biggest risk because Gnjilane is the centre of illegal activities.
We have no knowledge whether the destabilisation could spill over from Macedonia into central Serbia, no armed groups of Albanians have been observed in southern and central Serbia.
What is especially important for us is the fact that the Serbian Armed Forces, Ministry of Interior and security services are working as a team and are exceptionally well organised, which reassures us that any potential destabilisation stemming from possible escalations in Macedonia would be prevented.”

The sitting was attended by Chief of Police Milorad Veljovic, Igor Kecojevic and Bojan Dimic on the behalf of the Ministry of Interior, representatives of the Security Information Agency, Military Security Agency Director Brigadier General Petar Cvetkovic, Military Intelligence Agency Director Brigadier General Slavoljub Dabic, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Veljko Odalovic and the Chairman of the Coordination Body of the Republic of Serbia for municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja Zoran Stankovic.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Milovan Drecun.