INTERPOL General Assembly

LYON/BELGRADE - The so-called Kosovo's Interpol membership bid has been taken off the agenda of the organisation's General Assembly, Tanjug learns.

The request had been included in the Interpol Executive Committee's first draft agenda for a General Assembly session in Vienna, but was subsequently omitted from the final version.

"Bearing in mind that general elections in Kosovo were held on October 6, I kindly ask you to postpone our application for the next Interpol General Assembly meeting", Haradinaj wrote.
A note was sent to the Serbian Embassy in Paris in which Ramush Haradinaj withdraws his application for Kosovo membership at Interpol. The note arrived today just before 3pm.

Serbian diplomatic missions were given a directive to make every effort to thwart Kosovo's bid to become a member of an international police organization.
Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic says Pristina has no chance of joining Interpol.

"Everyone knows that, even they know it", Dacic underlined for "Politika" daily.
Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and Foreign Affairs Minister Dacic hosted yesterday's briefing for diplomats attended by representatives of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Algeria, Angola, Korea, the Russian Federation...

"The EU must influence the Kosovo authorities," the Russian MFA's comment said, according to Tanjug, which quoted a TASS article.

This Interior Ministry (MUP) official said on Thursday that thanks to this strong support, Serbia "managed to safeguard Interpol from the influence of politics."

On Tuesday, the organization voted to once again reject Pristina's membership bid - an attempt Serbia strongly opposed.

Kosovo's admission to Interpol was on the agenda yesterday at the General Assembly of Interpol in Dubai, and between the two rounds of voting, a break was announced, which caused protests by the Serbian delegation.

Sputnik was the first to break this news today, citing diplomatic sources in Dubai, where the Interpol General Assembly is taking place, and b92.net also received this information during the day.

The first on the list, according to many of them, is General Ljubisa Dikovic, who until recently served as chief of the Serbian Army's General Staff.

Speaking for Prva TV's morning program on Monday, Dikovic said that his conscience is clear on this matter. He also said that according to his knowledge, the indictment against him exists, and that it was written in Belgrade.

Dacic did this after announcing that another country had revoked its recognition of Kosovo.

Speaking about the possibility of Kosovo joining Interpol later this month - something Serbia is fiercely opposed to - the minister said he "doesn't want to be an optimist (as to the outcome), because the Serbian president doesn't like to be an optimist."