A day after Serbia and Kosovo initialled an agreement to normalise their relations, which officials in Pristina portrayed as recognition of Kosovo by Serbia, Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic started receiving threatening messages, including death threats, electronic media in Belgrade said on Saturday.
The news reached the media after Vucic complained about threatening text messages to members of his Progressive Party in Krusevac, where the state leadership gathered to celebrate Serbian Army Day. "Every second I get messages saying that they're going to kill me," he was quoted as telling party colleagues.
Media said that Vucic had today received dozens of text messages threatening him with death, allegedly from members of the Radical Party (SRS) of the Hague war crimes tribunal indictee Vojislav Seselj, of which Vucic had been a member.
The war of text messages erupted on Saturday morning when the SRS, according to its statement, launched a campaign entitled "Vox populi, vox Dei - the Voice of the People, the Voice of God!" in over 100 towns across the country, handing out leaflets with the mobile phone numbers of Vucic and Prime Minister Ivica Dacic. "Send a text to Aleksandar Vucic. Let's prevent Serbia's capitulation!" the leaflet read.
"I am used to threats. I have no problem with that because I know we are doing the only right thing and the maximum for the people and the country at the moment. Behind us is a difficult time of negotiations which should now bring security to our citizens. It is easy to take a mobile phone and send threats, but I know how hard it was to get what we were demanding so that things would not be even worse," Dacic told the Blic daily.
Belgrade should notify EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton by Monday whether or not it accepts the agreement which was initialled in Brussels on Friday.
