A Kosovo Serb leader told N1 that President Aleksandar Vucic’s statement that he favoured the separation with the Albanians in Kosovo, was yet another message “that spreads depression among the Kosovo Serbs.”

Momcilo Trajkovic, a member of the Serb National Forum Presidency, and former Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister, said that previous Vucic’s statements also contributed to Kosovo Serbs’ state of mind.

“Starting with statements like ‘we have nothing in Kosovo,’ ‘every inch would be the gain,’ ‘Kosovo was lost long time ago,’ and finally ‘a separation,’ all of them are a big disappointment which will fundamentally change how the remaining Serbs feel and think, especially those south of the Ibar river,” Trajkovic added.

He says that there are between 30 and 40,000 Serbs in the Kosovo north, while “the rest, over 120,000, are in the south.” “That means that 80,000 Serbs will remain in the so-called Greater Albania because the separation suggests that Serbia won’t have any power (in Kosovo),” Trajkovic said.

“If the separation also covers Presevo (Serbia's southern region mostly populated by the ethnic Albanians), 80,000 Serbs will stay in Kosovo and will be a disturbing factor. Then an exodus will follow because the Albanians will ask what the Serbs are doing here,” Trajkovic elaborated.

The latest Vucic’s message, he said, “undermined the position of the Serbs in Kosovo.”

"It has disturbed those who hope for a return, disappointed those who sacrificed themselves (and stayed in Kosovo). Some of my friends who were about to start building a house (in Kosovo), reconsidered the idea,” Trajkovic said.

He added that he had a meeting with Vucic in January and that the President made some promises, but that nothing happened.