Byzantine Blog

NATO/U.N. Abandons Unprotected Non-Albanians in Southern Serbian Province

Wednesday, December 27, 2006 — The surprise withdrawal of KFOR troops from Orahovac has provoked unrest among the remaining Serbs and Roma there who have been living in the upper part of town for the past seven years under the protection of international forces, stated Orahovac coordinator Dejan Baljosevic. He said that KFOR’s decision to leave was incomprehensible.

On Monday, without any previous announcement or notification, KFOR forces removed their armored vehicles and military equipment, abandoning the military base located in immediate proximity to the Serbian church in the upper part of Orahovac.

According to Baljosevic, since KFOR’s departure this part of Orahovac is completely deserted. About 100 students are attending classes but both children and adults are in their houses by dusk. Since KFOR has also removed the electric power generator, the streets the Serbs are living in are left in complete darkness.

Withdrawing Protection from Helpless Serbs and Roma Could be Devastating

In an open letter to the KFOR commander, a German national Roland Kather, Coordinating Center president Sanda Raskovic-Ivic has asked the commander to reevaluate decision to withdraw the NATO unit from Orahovac, warning that such a move could have devastating consequences.

“The decision to leave the Orahovac population unprotected in the midst of extremely hostile surroundings can have the catastrophic consequences. I expect you to reevaluate that decision without delay and return the protective military unit in the part of town where it has been stationed for the past seven years, thanks to which members of Serbian and Roma population remained in this town,” said Raskovic-Ivic in a letter to Kather.

She underlined that withdrawal of the KFOR unit has caused unrest in the entire Serbian community, not just among the remaining Orahovac residents whose lives are in constant danger.

“The safety of the non-Albanians has not only been unimproved, but has very much worsened in comparison to the year before. The responsibility for this lies with KFOR troops too, under your command, since protection of the endangered population is KFOR’s obligation,” emphasized the letter to Kather.

Raskovic-Ivic reminded Kather that he is a witness to daily ethnic-motivated attacks on members of the Serbian community, and of the fact that in the last three months alone there were 75 attacks on lives, material possessions and the dignity of Serbian and non-Albanian citizens.

Seat of Serbian Church in Kosovo Province Left Unprotected

According to Serbian daily Blic, NATO troops have also been withdrawn from the military station at the entrance to the Pec Patriarchate, few kilometers away from the town of Pec. Tanks, other military vehicles and KFOR soldiers from Italian contingent were stationed at the Patriarchate entrance. Right now, there is only one lone soldier left there.

If NATO Won’t Protect Kosovo Province Serbs, Serbian Army Will

Representatives of Kosovo Serbs have condemned the withdrawal of KFOR troops from northern Orahovac, leaving approximately 600 Serbs who have remained in the town without protection.

Serbian National Council of Kosovo province president Milan Ivanovic said that KFOR’s actions differ from its rhetoric advocating ensuring the safety for all in Serbian Kosovo and Metohija province.

“Withdrawal of KFOR troops from north Orahovac is a move that shows their words are mere rhetoric and that in some sort of independent Kosovo, Serbs would be abandoned to the Albanian extremists,” believes Ivanovic. He emphasized that such moves by KFOR should serve “to reinforce our conviction that we must rely completely on ourselves and our homeland.”

“If KFOR doesn’t want to undertake measures to protect Serbs then our homeland must inform the international community that it will protect its people. With its latest move, KFOR has taken a step too far,” said Ivanovic.

NATO’s and U.N.’s Role in Kosovo is to Create Second Albania on Serbian Soil

The president of the Union of Serbian Municipalities and Settlements in Kosovo and Metohija Marko Jaksic stated that “KFOR has not come here to protect the Serbs but primarily to protect the Albanians and a pseudo-sovereign creation that is supposed to be called conditionally independent Kosovo.”

“This is why we have such a large number of displaced Serbs; we also have the departure of KFOR from the so-called Serbian Street in Orahovac, gathered around the Serbian church in the Serbian part of the town,” he said.

Jaksic assessed that KFOR’s decision to withdraw from the Serbian part of Orahovac constitutes further proof that neither KFOR nor UNMIK care much about protecting the Serbs; they are here primarily for strategic and political reasons, as well as to form yet another Albanian state in the Balkans.

We Shall Return Once We Are Allowed to Live

Residents of Svinjare that were, during the Kosovo Kristallnacht in March 2004, expelled from their village near Kosovska Mitrovica, have sent an open letter to the UNMIK chief, another German — Joachim Ruecker. Reacting to the administrator’s claim Serbs are not returning to their village because of “political obstacles,” more than hundred villagers who signed the letter assured Ruecker they will return to their village as soon as their basic human rights are guaranteed: the right to freedom of movement, the right to personal possessions and the right to life.

Out of 580 Serbs who up to March 2004 pogrom lived in Svinjare, only three have remained in the devastated village.