BELGRADE – Serbs who were driven out of the region of Djakovica, southwestern Kosovo, issued on Thursday a protest to the authorities in Pristina not being allowed to visit their town and properties on Good Friday.
“The Serbs from the Djakovica region are resentful of the institution in Pristina, EULEX and KFOR for being unable to ensure safety for 120 Serbs who properly filed a request to visit their town on Good Friday,” President of the Association of Djakovica Citizens Djokica Stanojevic said on Thursday.
“This is not the way to solve problems, neither in Kosovo nor in Djakovica, from which 12,000 Serbs were driven out,” Stanojevic told Tanjug.
Those Serbs have been stripped of their property and rights and are now denied also the right to observe their religious customs, he underscored.
The Serbs who were forced out of Djakovica were also denied a visit on Christmas Eve, Stanojevic said.
“This is the final blow to the human dignity of the Serbs from Djakovica, being forbidden to visit on Good Friday our properties and the town we used to live and work in,” Stanojevic stated.
He asked non-governmental organizations to protect the rights of the Serbs who fled Djakovica in 1999 after the NATO bombing campaign and conflict with the Liberation Army of Kosovo, a paramilitary organization created by ethnic Albanians.
