The European Union on Tuesday condemned comments from a Serbian government minister who said she would "ethnically cleanse" Kosovo if she had been in power during the 1990s conflict.
Speaking to Serbian television station Kurir over the weekend, Public Administration Minister Snezana Paunovic said she would strip Kosovo of Albanians if she had been in the place of strongman Slobodan Milosevic during the 1998-1999 war.
"Not by liquidating them in the way they have sought to ethnically cleanse Kosovo to this day, but by ensuring that anyone who feels less like a citizen... leaves and goes to their homeland," the minister, who was born in Kosovo, said.
Responding to a journalist's question about the comment, EU spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said, "there is no place in Europe for rhetoric justifying and advocating ethnic cleansing".
"Such statements run counter to the values of human dignity, reconciliation, accountability," Hipper told a press briefing in Brussels.
The minister's comment triggered calls from opposition parties for her resignation, but she remained unrepentant on Tuesday.
"I do not renounce SPS policy," Paunovic said, referring to her Serbian Socialist Party which was founded by Milosevic.
"We are a party that led Serbia in indescribably difficult historical circumstances, a party that made great sacrifices," she said in a statement quoted by local news outlet Danas.
Kosovo has declared Paunovic persona non grata imposing a permanent ban on her entry or transit through the Balkan nation.
"Her public statements pose a threat to the country by inciting hate speech and destabilisation," Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said in a Facebook post.
Since the end of the Kosovo war, which killed around 13,000 people, tensions have remained high between Pristina and Belgrade -- with Serbia refusing to recognise its former territory's independence.
Following Milosevic's overthrow, he was arrested and charged with crimes against humanity committed during the war, but he died while his trial was ongoing before an international court in The Hague.
Paunovic's remarks also sparked outrage in Kosovo, with the country's Labour Minister Andin Hoti labelling them as "proof that Serbia has not yet been freed from Milosevic's genocidal ideology and from the criminal policy that brought wars, massacres and historical shame".
