“At a time when Orthodox Christians around the world are preparing to celebrate the day of birth of Jesus Christ, Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are denied the right to rejoice in Christmas, to hold their ceremony/prayers and to bring in the Christmas Log,” Mayor of Mitrovica North, Goran Rakic said in a press statement, Radio Mitrovica reported.

“Every holiday in Đakovica turns into a promotion of pure hatred towards everything that is Serbian. This year is no different.

Locking of the nuns, ethnically- motivated protests and prevention of the service is the greatest shame with which the institutions that are responsible for the security of all citizens are starting the year 2018.

The disgrace is equally shared by the international organizations that are not even bothered to raise their voice against this event.

I strongly condemn such behaviour, and most harshly condemn the passivity of the institutions that failed to secure the minimum rights for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, even 18 years after the conflict.

I will ask from the competent authorities at the next meetings a full report and responsibility for this event,” Rakic concluded.

Meanwhile, Serbian Government Office for Kosovo Director, Marko Djuric told RTV Pink, this was not the first time that such a thing was happening and this was the evidence that the international forces were not doing their job well enough in this case.

“I wanted to talk about the fact that we have thousands of armed soldiers, and as many members of different missions, all of them together, when they see that the local institutions are not capable of protecting the four nuns, they have shown that they are not doing their job in the best possible way, in this specific case (…). In the previous years, Đakovica remained totally inaccessible for the Serbs.

Djuric also said those people, who have blocked a religious building, did not realize the nuns behind the monastery walls were more free in love and  prayer than those chained by the hatred.

Djuric also commented on the initiative that was launched in the Kosovo Assembly to abrogate the law on the Specialist Chambers and stressed that Serbia was in favour of having the war criminals punished, but highlighted that “since Serbia was not consulted regarding the establishment of this court, it should not be asked for help nowadays in the resolution of the conflict”.