BELGRADE - The Association of Djakovica Citizens has stated that the demolished Serb homes in that town in southwestern Kosovo should be rebuilt to allow 12,000 Serbs to return there, because Kosovo's future lies in multiethnicity.

The association reacted to a recent statement by Djakovica Mayor Mimoza Kusari Ljilja that the demolition of Serb homes was not a political issue by pointing out that Kosovo's future cannot be built on the suffering on 230,000 Serbs driven out of Kosovo.

"We all know that, both the Serbs and the (Kosovo) Albanians. We are working together to have the Serbs who were forced out of their homes return to them and claim all of the rights they were denied," the association said in a statement signed by its president, Djokica Stanojevic.

Kusari Ljilja gave a statement recently for channel 2 of Radio and Television of Kosovo, in which she said the local authorities had ordered the demolition of two Serb homes in Djakovica because of the threat of their collapse, and not because they were owned by Serbs.

The owners were not informed about the demolition, only UNMIK, and the local authorities reacted to complaints about a possible collapse of the Serb houses and their threat to safety, she noted.

Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in an address to the UN Security Council on Thursday that 5 buildings owned by the Serb family Stefic, who had lived in Djakovica for generations, were demolished in late August.

It was done at the order of Kusari Ljilja, which constituted a clear message to Serbs that they were not welcome to return to Djakovica, he said.

Some 12,000 Serbs lived in Djakovica until 1999, while only 4 elderly women remain today, living in the compound of the local monastery, he pointed out.