Dacic: No one in Serbia has anything to do with Z Potok canal blast

BELGRADE - Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Friday no Serbian authority or official, or anyone who could be associated with Serbia, had been involved in a recent incident in which a canal at Zubin Potok, northern Kosovo-Metohija, was damaged by an explosion.

Speaking to the RTS, Dacic said Serbian police had received no query from Pristina regarding that criminal act.

He said there were suspicions the Ibar-Lepenac canal might have been damaged on purpose to pin the blame on Serbia and noted that this was a "shameful indicator" of what Pristina was prepared to do for political gains.

"Right away, they said Serbia is to blame. They announced that to everyone before any investigation was carried out. I think it is clear to everyone, including the international community, that this is about the madness of Albin Kurti, who considers Serbia a Russian proxy and a destabilising factor, and uses that as an argument for attacking Serbs living in Kosovo-Metohija," Dacic said.

He said cooperation with the provisional police and judicial authorities in Pristina was due to proceed through international missions - UNMIK, KFOR and EULEX - but that, in an attempt to demonstrate its so-called independence, Pristina did not accept that and was refusing to contact Belgrade through those channels.

"That canal was built by the citizens of Serbia and the former Yugoslavia. Why would we now destroy that, what would our motive be?" Dacic said.