"Dead letter on paper"

On the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the signing of this agreement, he told RTS that it was the decision of those who needed to guarantee the Serbs that an umbrella institution for the protection of individual and collective rights of the Serbian people would be created through the Community of Serbian Municipalities.

Answering the question of where the Serbs are 11 years later, Simic said that it is difficult to give an answer to that question, but that the majority are still in Kosovo and Metohija, although a part of the people left, primarily under the pressure of the regime in Pristina led by the Prime Minister Albin Kurti of the temporary institutions of Pristina.

"I believe and we all hope that they only temporarily left the area of Kosovo and Metohija and we expect them to return, but the fact is that under the repression of that regime, the Serbs had to leave the area of Kosovo and Metohija and I must emphasize that," said Simić.

He added that the Serbs are not leaving Kosovo and Metohija for economic reasons, as the Albanians do, but exclusively for security reasons because they cannot guarantee the children's safety or future in that area.

He pointed out that the expectations of the Serbs from the Brussels Agreement were disappointed, and not from the Albanian leadership, which the Serbs did not trust even 11 years ago, just as they do not trust now, but they believed that the time had come for the European Union and the Western world to accept the Serbs as equals.  

"Unfortunately, it all came to nothing. And as I said, we were not surprised or disappointed by the Albanians. We were disappointed by the representatives of the European Union and the Western world who told us at the time that the Serbs in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija would be protected, but they were not. Nor then, not now," he stressed.

Commenting on the acceptance of the proposal by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that the so-called Kosovo is joining that organization, he said that this kind of Kosovo with the current regime as a member of the Council of Europe seems paradoxical.

"A regime that steals the property of Serbs without any legal acts and legal processes. A regime that keeps Serbs in its casemates for many years without indictments, without any legal process to prove guilt. And such a regime gets visa liberalization and now potential membership for the Council of Europe ", he said.

He assessed that it seems paradoxical, that it is a shame and a disgrace, a stain on the face of Europe.

Speaking about how Serbs live in Kosovo after the abolition of the dinar as a means of payment, Simić pointed out that Pristina does not allow goods from central Serbia to enter Kosovo, as well as medicine. According to him, salaries, pensions and social benefits are paid in amounts up to 10,000 dinars in Kosovo and Metohija, and for everything above that, citizens, both the elderly and those who receive social assistance and people with disabilities, must come to the nearest places in central Serbia.

"It is the only way to provide food for their children, so that they can buy the basic means of living with that money. That is how Serbs live in Kosovo and Metohija today," Simić pointed out.