The article with misinformation from the Kurir.rs medium was corrected after being handled by hibrid.info (see the corrected article). here)
The head of the Serbian government's office for Kosovo, Petar Petkovic, today (September 09) repeated the false claim that official Pristina is violating the Brussels agreement by building police bases in the north and is illegally taking over KFOR's responsibilities. Petkovic also repeated the other false claim that KFOR is the only one that has the right to be present in the area.
Petkovic's claims were picked up by the main Serbian media. (see here, here, here)
Excerpt from the statement of the head of the office for Kosovo, Petkovic:
By building illegal special police bases in northern Kosovo and Metohija, Pristina is "dismantling" the Brussels Agreement and illegally taking over KFOR's responsibilities, said today the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic.
"This makes it clear that Pristina does not really want agreements, but conflicts and tensions. But one thing is certain - the north of Kosovo and Metohija belongs to the Serbian people and not to (Albij) Kurti and (Dželja) Sveclja," Petkovic said.
Similar claims were made by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, on August 21, when he said that the Kosovo Police do not have the right to extend their activities to northern Kosovo without the permission of the mayors of Serb-majority municipalities in that part (here).
Excerpts from Vučić's claims:
Stressing the tensions that exist in Kosovo and Kosovo, President Vučić said that it is important for Pristina to adhere to the agreement that Kosovo special forces can move to the north only with the consent of NATO and the mayors of the four municipalities where Serbs live. (see official announcement) here)
After this, on the same day (Sunday, August 21), the director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, reacted, coming out in support of the Serbian leader - Vučić. He said that in northern Kosovo "only members of the Kosovo Police from the Northern Directorate can operate" and that "not all members of the Kosovo Police have this right, as the Minister of the Interior of Kosovo, Xhelal Svečla, claims" (here).
The same claim was repeated today (August 23) by the Serbian president, after meeting with the United States (US) Ambassador to Belgrade, Christopher Hill.
For this, hibrid.info has consulted with official documents relevant to this issue, and has found that the claim of the Serbian leader and another high-ranking official is incorrect. The official documents that classify the claims of Serbian officials as unfounded and prove that the Kosovo Police operates through a unified chain of command throughout the territory of the Republic of Kosovo are: The agreement of April 19, 2013 between the former NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and the former Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi (see here); Law on Police, article 4, point 3 (see here); Agreement on the Normalization of Relations between Kosovo and Serbia, reached on 19 April 2013 (see here).
Hibrid.info has consulted these documents and compared them with the above-mentioned claims. (see here)
Analyze:
The head of the office for Kosovo, Petar Petkovic, today repeated the claims that Pristina is violating the Brussels agreement by building police bases in the north, taking responsibility from KFOR.
These claims have been made previously by Petkovic and Serbian President Vučić, which have been addressed by hibrid.info.
In the documents consulted and processed by hibrid.info, the claim of Serbian officials does not hold true, and that no agreement is violated if the Kosovo police build a base or patrol the area to maintain order and security.
For this reason, hibrid.info evaluates these claims as "Manipulation of Facts".
Reasoning:
The evaluation as "Manipulation of facts" is given to those media reports that use facts known to be correct, but interpret them in a distorted way. These reports typically use inaccurate information to draw inaccurate conclusions or claims, thereby misdirecting consumers' conclusions of media content in relation to the actual meaning of the facts presented.