Serbs targeted in series of incidents in Kosovo

Serbs targeted in series of incidents in Kosovo

"I walked a friend home and was returning on my own when a speeding car came by, and when it reached me it slowed down and somebody struck me on the shoulder hard, and said something to me in Albanian. Then they quickly left," she told RTV KiM broadcaster.

Suncica added that two men were in the car and that they played Albanian music loudly. The girl said that she ran home in fear after the incident, and that the case was reported to the local police in Pasjane.

However, police spokesman for the Gnjilane region Ismet Hashani was quoted as saying that no report had been received yet, and that he was "not acquainted with the case."

The teenager's father, Budimir Markovic, told RTV KiM that the family was upset and would not be sending their children to school after the incident, out of fear for their safety.

The Patres-Pasjane municipal president, Dragan Nikolic, condemned in the strongest terms this latest incident in the Kosovsko Pomoravlje District village.

He asked the police and the international community to provide safety for the residents and bring the attackers to justice.

Late on Monday, a local Serb man, Zoran Nikolic, was stabbed with a knife. The police arrested one of his attackers, while the other is still at large.

Reacting to this, the Serbian Government's Kosovo Office warned on Tuesday the provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina and the international forces that they must make further efforts to prevent attacks targeting Serbs.

A statement said that the repeated attacks in the province created dangerous tensions in an unstable security area, and added that the aim was to intimidate returnees and force them to permanently abandon their ancestral homes.

The office also stated that it was encouraging that the police quickly arrested one and identified another attacker on Zoran Kostic, but noted at the same time that those who assaulted Vule Vostic in the Klina municipality have not been arrested.

"It is particularly worrying that, despite the existence of eyewitnesses, the persons who tried to abduct a nine-year-old girl of Serb nationality in the village of Babin Most near Obilic have not been arrested," the statement said.

The office also said that the perpetrators of a recent attack on minor Nikola Saveljic near Peace Park in northern Kosovska Mitrovica have not yet been identified.