Daily Life for Kosovo Serbs
Albanian Muslim minority demands part of Serbia, minus all the Serbs, their churches and monasteries... even their dogs have to be killed.
Attempts to Intimidate and Chase Serbian Humanitarian Out of Kosovo Province
Tanjug reports that early on Thursday, “unidentified perpetrators” fired shots at the house of Zoran Maksimovic, director of the humanitarian organization Decija Radost (Children’s Joy), situated in the ethnically mixed village of Gornji Livoc, Kosovo-Metohija Municipality of Gnjilane.
The attack occurred around 2 a.m., Maksimovic said in a statement for Tanjug. No one was injured, even though his mother, brother, sister-in-law and two children were in the house with him at the time, he said, adding that this is not the first attack on him or on his family.
He was fired at earlier while in his car and, in a separate incident, “unknown perpetrators” killed his dog.
Maksimovic is also a coordinator in the humanitarian organization Our Serbia which takes care of more than 1,000 war orphans.
Remaining Inhabitants of the Village Torched in 2004 Pogrom Ordered Out
Some 80 Serbs from the village Svinjare — razed to the ground and torched during the March 2004 Albanian pogrom of Serbs in Kosovo province — who are living in two unfinished buildings in the center of Zvecane, close to Kosovska Mitrovica, said Thursday that they have been ordered to move out right before the start of winter, by September 23.
Serbian Svinjare village was burned to the ground by raging Albanian mob on March 20, 2004, while the UNMIK police and NATO troops watched.
The representative of the villagers, Milorad Radivojevic, said that two months ago the Zvecan municipality assembly informed them that they have to move out within 60 days.
Radivojevic said that they wrote to UNMIK Chief Joachim Ruecker, informing him about their problems and requesting that a solution is found since it is impossible for them to return to Svinjare.
The displaced villagers told Ruecker that if adequate accommodation is not found for them or if this problem is not resolved with the Zvecan authorities, they would enter the UNMIK facilities and remain there until the issue of their accommodation is solved.
The 80 displaced Svinjare villagers, including small children, have been living in the two unfinished buildings since March 20, 2004 in very harsh conditions, without drinking water and the basic sewage.
ICTY Ignores Cases of Kidnapped and Killed Kosovo Serbs
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) systematically ignores and does not prosecute the cases of Serbs kidnapped and killed in Kosovo-Metohija province, which is completely unacceptable, the Serbian Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the data collected by the association of families, which aims to determine the facts in these cases, the number of kidnapped and killed Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija is over 2,700.
The statement said that the Ministry called for a responsible approach to this issue by all interested sides.
The Ministry believes that the process of determination of the fate of the kidnapped and determination of responsibility for each individual case of kidnapping of Kosovo Serbs, including criminal responsibility for the perpetrators of these crimes, represents one of the most important activities with the aim of ensuring reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians and stabilization of the situation in Serbia’s southern province.
The statement follows the meeting of State Secretary for Kosovo-Metohija Dusan Prorokovic with representatives of the Association of the Families of Kidnapped and Killed Kosovo Serbs, where the discrimination of the ICTY and local institutions headed by UNMIK in Kosovo against Kosovo Serb victims was discussed.