New incidents in Kosovo targeting Serbs

New incidents in Kosovo targeting Serbs

The attack on the Dabizljevic family was the third against Serb returnees in that municipality over the past two weeks.

The incident took place just two days after two Serb ministers from the Kosovo government visited Klina and met with officials of the local self-government authorities and Kosovo Police following incidents in which returnees had been attacked and robbed.

The Dabizljevic family has been targeted by attackers on multiple occasions and the basement of their family house has been set on fire three times.

During the latest visit to the Klina municipality we received assurances that the police are making maximum efforts to protect the returnees, but apparently they are still unprotected and the latest events worry us even more, said Dalibor Jevtic, the Kosovo government minister for return.

He urged the authorities to react quickly and punish the perpetrators of this and all past incidents in Klina, calling on the Kosovo Police to inform the public of the results of investigations into attacks against Serbs and their property.

In a separate incident on Monday, unidentified persons threw stones at the Braca Aksic elementary school in Lipljan, central.

Nobody was injured, but the attackers broke windows on the school "located in the majority ethnic Albanian area.

The case has been reported to the Kosovo police, who have launched an investigation into the incident, Tanjug said.

Head of the Kosovo Administrative District Srdjan Petkovic told Radio Gracanica that it was not the first time that the school had been attacked by vandals and added that the remaining Serbs in Lipljan were being constantly exposed to various forms of pressure aimed at forcing them leave the place 20 km south of Pristina.

“These provocations are always happening whenever tension is heightened, regardless of whether it is about some kind of sports match or conflict, such as the recent incident in Macedonia. The Serbs feel intimidated and demand that the perpetrators be found and brought to justice. We seek protection from representatives of the international community, because we feel unsafe in our own city,” Petkovic said.

In Lipljan, classes in Serbian are attended by about 60 students. Prior to the beginning of the Kosovo conflict in 1999, there were about 6,000 Serbs in Lipljan while only around 500 of them remain there today.